Archived Content

Medicare and Big Business

To the Editor:

Medicare Shift May Lead Way to Budget Pact” (front page, March 29) held out hope for a bipartisan deal to fix Medicare. America’s business leaders believe that would be a good thing.

Medicare — a program designed in a different era that does not match today’s fiscal and demographic realities — is badly in need of reform.

The good news is that Americans are living longer, healthier and more productive lives. The bad news is that Medicare, as constituted, is simply not capable of underwriting an increasingly longer portion of our lives.

The members of Business Roundtable — more than 200 chief executives of America’s leading companies employing nearly 16 million workers — have called on Congress and the administration to reform and strengthen Medicare, including by gradually increasing the eligibility age over time and letting beneficiaries choose between traditional Medicare and competing personal plans.

We’ve seen this work in the Medicare prescription drug benefit program, where competition has resulted in better service and reduced cost growth.

We need pragmatic, bipartisan solutions that will preserve the promise of Medicare for generations to come while improving America’s fiscal outlook. In discussions with leaders in the administration and Congress, we, too, have perceived some newfound flexibility. We urge them to work together and reach an agreement this year.

GARY W. LOVEMAN
RANDALL L. STEPHENSON
Washington, April 4, 2013

The writers are, respectively, chairman, chief executive and president of Caesars Entertainment Corporation; and chairman and chief executive of A.T.&T.

We use cookies to give you the best experience when using our website. You can click “Accept” if you agree to allow us to place cookies. For more information, please see our Cookie Notice.