EDITORIAL: Medicare must be solvent

Mar. 9—About 60 million older Americans rely on Medicare for at least part of their health care coverage. Members of Congress, then, have little choice but to ensure the program's long-term solvency.

Medicare's trustees have estimated that the trust fund for Medicare Part A, which covers hospitalization, will be insolvent by the end of 2028. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office more recently estimated that insolvency will occur by the end of 2030.

Either way, a fix is crucial. The question, as always, is who will pay.

President Joe Biden recently proposed a plan, which will be part of the 2024 budget proposal he will reveal today in Philadelphia, that would keep Medicare solvent through 2050.

It would not reduce or cut benefits. It would increase from 3.8% to 5% the net investment income tax on incomes of more than $400,000 per year. And it would expand the government's newly minted authority to negotiate for lower drug prices.

The proposal will not pass the Republican-controlled House because of its tax increase on high earners. Republicans should offer a counterproposal.

There is room for compromise. Some modest high-end tax could be coupled, for example, with a moderate increase of the Medicare payroll tax of 1.45% on employees and employers.

Medicare is not just an essential health-care program. It is a crucial anti-poverty program and part of the nation's social glue — to the point that it must bind Congress and the administration in a common effort to preserve it.

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