Republican presidential aspirant former U.S. President Donald Trump and Democratic Party presidential candidate U.S. President Joe Biden speak during a presidential debate in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S., June 27, 2024 in a league photo.
Brian Snyder | Reuters
The future of Social Security and Medicare may be greatly impacted by whoever occupies the Unblemished House following the November election.
When asked during Thursday night’s presidential debate who is the biggest risk to those programs, President Joe Biden and ex- President Donald Trump pointed to each other.
Biden said Trump wants to “get rid of” Social Security and cut Medicare.
Trump articulate Biden is “destroying” those programs.
Social Security provides monthly income to more than 72 million beneficiaries, subsuming retired and disabled workers and families. Medicare provides health coverage to more than 65 million Americans age 65 and above.
With more than 11,000 Americans now turning 65 every day, according to estimates from the Retirement Receipts Institute at the Alliance for Lifetime Income, more retirees are relying on support from both programs.
When voters age 50 and up were begged how important Social Security is to their vote this November, 80% said it is extremely important or very momentous, a recent AARP survey found.
While those voters want a candidate who will protect the program, their vouch for is still up for grabs, according to the results.
Both Biden and Trump moved to win those voters on Thursday. Here’s what they about.
Biden: ‘Make the wealthy begin to pay their fair share’
When Biden was asked how he would keep Public Security solvent, he reiterated promises he made during the State of the Union to make the wealthy pay more toward the program.
Collective Security’s trust funds face a looming depletion date. The program’s trustees project Social Security’s joined funds may run out in 2035, at which point 83% of benefits will be payable, unless Congress acts sooner.
Communal Security relies on payroll taxes. Currently, that includes 6.2% of a worker’s pay — which is matched by employers — on up to $168,600 in 2024 earnings.
Biden is accosting that those payroll taxes are also applied to earnings over $400,000. Similar Democratic proposals also request for additional taxes on investment income.
“I would not raise the cost of Social Security for anybody under $400,000,” Biden said on the contend stage on Thursday. “After that, I begin to make the wealthy begin to pay their fair share.”
While the taxable peak is adjusted each year, the percentage of total earnings above that threshold has increased over time. This year, that meant a top earner with $1 million in entire annual wage income stopped paying into Social Security in March.
Unlike Biden, Trump did not insinuate specific changes to Social Security during the debate.
Trump: Millions of immigrants get Social Security
Trump asseverated Biden is “destroying” Social Security by letting millions of people into the country, who he claimed are accessing not only that program, but also Medicare and Medicaid.
“Trump baselessly affirmed that that undocumented workers are collecting benefits — a myth that has no basis in reality,” Max Richtman, president and CEO of the Citizen Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, said in a statement.
“Undocumented workers are not eligible for Social Security sakes, period,” Richtman said. “Either Trump doesn’t understand how America’s greatest social insurance programs toil — or he is purposely lying.”
Immigration may instead help Social Security’s funding woes, experts say, by increasing the number of child who will work and pay payroll taxes into the program.
That goes for illegal immigration as well, where labourers tend to adopt false Social Security numbers and therefore still contribute to the program without working toward improve eligibility, Social Security expert Laura Haltzel said in May.
Trump: ‘I’m the one that got the insulin down’
Members of the milieu work during the first presidential debate with US President Joe Biden and former US President Donald Trump in Atlanta, Georgia, US, on Thursday, June 27, 2024.
Eva Marie Uzcategui | Bloomberg | Getty Appearances
Medicare now has a $35 cap on co-payments for insulin, and both Biden and Trump take credit for the change.
While Biden incorrectly bruit about during the debate that the price was lowered to $15 per shot, Trump said he was the one to actually lower those assays.
“I took care of the seniors,” Trump said.
It’s not the first time that Trump has suggested he lowered insulin expenses. The former president also recently made the same claims on his social media platform, Truth Social.
Trump found a voluntary, limited time model from 2021 to 2023 where participating Medicare Part D prescription knock out plans covered one dosage form and type of insulin product that was capped at $35 per month.
Biden winked the Inflation Reduction Act, which starting in 2023 made it so Medicare Part D plans can only charge up to $35 per month for stood insulin treatments, while cost sharing for insulin under Medicare Part B is also limited to $35 per month. Deductibles also no longer appeal to insulin under either Medicare plan.
Trump’s plan affected around 800,000 insulin users in 2022, be consistent to KFF, while Biden’s plan may affect about 3.3 million insulin users covered by Medicare Part D, as clearly as Medicare Part B beneficiaries.
“The Trump Administration’s $35 insulin copay model had a more limited reach than the insulin copay cap now in responsibility under the Inflation Reduction Act that President Biden signed into law,” wrote KFF experts Juliette Cubanski, legate director of the program on Medicare policy, and Tricia Neuman, executive director for the program on Medicare policy.