Alliance’s New “Project 2025” Fact Sheet Illuminates Changes in Social Security and Medicare if Donald Trump is Elected President

The Heritage Foundation published a 900-page policy blueprint entitled “Mandate for Leadership, the Conservative Promise, Project 2025,” designed to be the roadmap for a second Trump Administration if he is elected in November. Heritage, a conservative think tank in Washington, D.C., developed the plan with several former Trump administration officials and it reflects input from over 100 conservative organizations.

If implemented, Project 2025 would dramatically reshape the federal government by placing the entire Executive Branch of the U.S. government under direct presidential control, eliminating the independence of the Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigations, the Federal Communications Commission and all other federal agencies, as well as potentially firing thousands of federal civil service government employees.

The changes would include dramatic cuts to Social Security and Medicare. The plan would make Medicare Advantage the default enrollment option for people who are newly eligible for Medicare; when Medicare Advantage was created, insurance corporations argued that they could deliver more benefits to consumers at a lower cost to the government, but this has not happened.

“Project 2025 also calls for severe cuts to Social Security, including increasing the full retirement age from 67 to 70,” said Richard Fiesta, Executive Director of the Alliance. “This would amount to a cut of nearly 20% in lifetime benefits for all new beneficiaries, many of whom work in physically demanding jobs. It is nearly impossible for many people to work until age 70.”

Read the Alliance’s Project 2025 fact sheet here.

Biden Administration Invests in Training More Geriatricians to Treat Older Patients

A geriatrician is a medical doctor who is specially trained to meet the unique health care needs of older adults, both while sick in the hospital and in an outpatient setting. Because 10,000 baby boomers are turning 65 every day between 2011 and 2029, the nation faces a shortage of nearly 30,000 geriatricians in 2025.

On Monday the Biden Administration announced an investment of $206 million to 42 different academic institutions across the country to address this growing need. The money will also be used to fund programs that help family members and community caregivers learn how to care for their aging loved ones, many of whom have Alzheimer's and related dementias. Another benefit of the funding: improving primary care is associated with lower overall health costs.

“Training more primary care providers in geriatrics will make it easier for seniors to get the care they need,” said Robert Roach, Jr., President of the Alliance. “It is one more way that the

Biden-Harris administration is addressing what seniors need most to have a comfortable, secure retirement.”

NIRS: Pensions Play a Key Role in Sustaining a Robust Public Safety Workforce

As state and local governments across the nation struggle to fill public safety jobs, research from the National Institute on Retirement Security (NIRS) explores how defined benefit pension plans are a critical workforce management tool for public safety employers.

Retention rates in Alaska with a defined benefit (DB) pension plan vs. a defined contribution (DC) plan such as a 401(k)

NIRS’ new report, The Role of Defined Benefit Pensions in Recruiting and Retaining Public Safety Professionals, examines data from a nationally representative sample of 28 police and fire pension plans, as well as national data.

The analysis shows that police officers have an average tenure of 18 years, firefighters have an average of 20 years, and all public safety workers combined have an average of 17.6 years of service. This retention rate contrasts sharply with the private sector, which had a median tenure in 2022 of just 4.1 years.

The research found that a majority of the public safety workers’ pension plans expect 75 percent or more of current employees to retire from the plan, and more than half of new hires (52 percent) are projected to stay until retirement.

The research also finds that after the fifth year of service, public safety employee turnover flattens and remains very low until the worker reaches retirement eligibility. The data indicate that pension plans are working as intended to retain workers during their career and help employees transition to retirement when appropriate.

“The research confirms that defined benefit pension plans have critically important recruitment and retention effects for public safety personnel,” said Joseph Peters, Jr., Secretary-Treasurer of the Alliance. “It is no accident that many jurisdictions that have recently made significant changes to their public pension plans have seen higher levels of employee turnover.”

A July 11 NIRS webinar will offer a review of the research. You can register for the webinar here.

KFF Health News: The Concierge Catch - Better Access for a Few Patients Disrupts Care for Many
By John Rossheim

“You had to pay the fee, or the doctor wasn’t going to see you anymore.”

That was the takeaway for Terri Marroquin of Midland, Texas, when her longtime physician began charging a membership fee in 2019. She found out about the change when someone at the physician’s front desk pointed to a posted notice.

At first, she stuck with the practice; in her area, she said, it is now tough to find a primary care doctor who doesn’t charge an annual membership fee from $350 to $500.

But last year, Marroquin finally left to join a practice with no membership fee where she sees a physician assistant rather than a doctor. “I had had enough. The concierge fee kept going up, and the doctor’s office kept getting nicer and nicer,” she said, referring to the décor.