On May 20, 2024, Paragon’s research by Joe Albanese, Reducing Government Subsidies for Wealthier Medicare Enrollees, was referenced in a City Journal article by Chris Pope of the Manhattan Institute.
From the article:
Trouble lies ahead. Medicare’s trustees estimate that costs will more than double again over the next decade, while the number of workers per retiree will continue to shrink. The program needs a major funding boost to avoid reform. Who will provide it?
One answer, proposed in a recent study by Joe Albanese of the Paragon Health Institute, is to make wealthy Medicare beneficiaries pay for more of their benefits. Albanese notes that such a proposal was supported by both the liberal Obama administration and the conservative Heritage Foundation. Currently, only 8 percent of beneficiaries (those with annual incomes above $103,000) pay premiums that cover more than a sixth of their total Medicare expenses. And only 0.2 percent (those making more than $500,000) pay premiums covering as much as half of their program expenses.
