Ross Douthat, a political columnist, offers the following observations about the Medicare program: Certainly telling seniors to buy all their own health care is a complete political (and ethical) non-starter. But telling seniors to pay for more of their own health care-well, it's hard to see how else we can hope to reduce Medicare's fiscal burden.
a. What does Douthat mean by Medicare's "fiscal burden"?
b. How could the government change the Medicare program so that seniors would pay for more of their own health care? How would this change restrain growth in the spending on Medicare? How would this change affect very low-income seniors?
Source: Ross Douthat, "We're All Rationers," New York Times, May 19, 2011.