Time running out for medicare reform

Mum was the word Tuesday from President Bush and the three candidates trying to get his job as the latest and grimmest report ever was released on the shaky state of Medicare and Social Security.

Medicare will be in the red by 2019, according to administration officials, with Social Security dive-bombing in 2041. If it seems like those disastrous deadlines are sneaking up on us, it is because they are.

Under Bush, the insolvency date for Medicare has moved up six years, largely because of his $915 billion expansion to cover prescription drugs.

Bush busied himself at a photo-op with Bassmaster fishing champions. Republican John McCain flirted with Nancy Reagan. Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama filibustered over what happened in Bosnia 12 years ago.

Saving the two programs most Americans rely on to get through their senior years seems like a great goal for any aspiring candidate. But raising taxes and cutting health care and retirement benefits aren't going to win any campaign slogan contests.

That's why people who want to live in the White House try to avoid the subject, and the ones that become president rarely find consensus (if they're looking) for fixing the problem.

All three candidates seem to understand the next president will inherit a mess. McCain criticized Bush's prescription drug program in 2003 because it did not include a way to pay for it, but he's not suggesting that he'll ditch it now.

Clinton and Obama would fix Medicare as part of broader health care reforms that include changes to the way doctors are reimbursed, reduced drug prices and more preventative care through increased access. But those changes will take time, and this week's report suggests that there's not much left.

Medicare is already spending more than it collects, and baby boomers will start signing up for health coverage in 2011.

For years, presidents and would-be presidents have set Medicare and Social Security aside as problems someone else can handle in the future. That someone must be the next president.