Summary: Part A: What might happen to Medicare in the years ahead? On this Prime Time episode, our two guests discuss the effects of health care reform on the program and solutions to fix the so-called doughnut hole. Robert Moffit, a veteran of more than three decades in Washington policymaking, is the Heritage Foundation's senior fellow in domestic and economic policy studies. He specializes in health care and entitlement programs, including Medicare. The Brookings Institution's Henry Aaron, a noted health care expert, focuses on financing reform of public systems such as Medicare and Medicaid, Social Security, and tax and budget policy. Part B: What does the future hold for Social Security? In this episode, two experts, David John and Virginia Reno, explore whether the popular program can be saved with long-term, incremental changes, such as lowering benefits for higher earners, versus more radical approaches, such as converting the system into one of personal retirement accounts. John is the Heritage Foundation's lead analyst on retirement security issues. Roll Call/Congressional Quarterly has called John one of five experts who "exert more influence" on the Social Security debate than anyone else. Reno is vice president for income security at the National Academy of Social Insurance. She has a broad expertise in Social Security, retirement policy, private pensions, the income of the elderly and disability policy.
