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Originally Posted by CRedskinsRule
Thanks for actually discussing the actual issues. I believe the systemic issues should outweigh politics but I agree with you. Politicians can/will not make tough choices if Joe Public is not pushing it, and as you said right now its a monster under the bed issue, both sides can use it to scare there base by saying the right call words.
I believe social programs should be keyed to (at least) 3 main measurables:
Average life expectancy
Localized cost of living
average cost of preventative care medical figured independently from general cost of living.
If you can find baselines around those statistics and total percentage of federal budget allocated to these programs then you should be able find the intersecting values that keep the system working right.
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Yes and those statistics already exist as part of the Medicare reimbursement formula - Medicare pays based on wage index, so a hospital located in New York gets paid more than a hospital located in Nebraska simply by virtue of the fact that nurses and doctors in New York have higher wage rates than those in Nebraska.
Philadelphia's wage index for example is 1.06, it's hardwired into the Medicare formula, SS could just borrow from the same thing.
And cost of Medical care is available through the Bureau of Labor & Statistics, can just look at the CPI for Medical Care Services. You're right, it should be easy to hardwire this.
Getting several hundred congress men and women to understand how it works is one hurdle, because embarrassingly may do not. And then there's the political hurdle, why support something that isn't a fire yet. But agree, it's not as hard as people think.