Perhaps setting the stage for political suicide, an active cabinet level Secretary took the rare step of speaking out as a government trustee and not as a government official. In a recent speech to right wing think tanks, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Michael Leavitt laid out his concerns as a citizen regarding the rising costs of Medicare, the government's $400 billion federal health insurance plan for the elderly, currently covering 44 million people.
He provided extraordinary insight to the right-leaning Heritage Foundation and American Enterprise Institute, saying, "Higher and higher costs are being borne by fewer and fewer people." To emphasize the point he added, "There is serious danger here," he added. "Medicare is drifting towards disaster."
Understanding Medicare will not be fixed in the next 266 days, he provided general advice on the creation of a political construct for action and a general strategy to solve the problem for the next administration.
Leavitt's speech echoes repeated warnings from other federal government officials who have noted that Medicare spending is projected to be 3.3 percent of gross domestic product in 2009. To the candidates vying for presidency he said, "If we act now, we can change the outcome" and that "it troubles me that this matter is not receiving more attention in the presidential candidates' discussions. The next president will have to deal with this in significant part".
Even though a dollar short and a day late, OhMyGov! salutes Secretary Leavitt for having the political courage to speak out on this important issue and hopes this does not cost him his job.
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