Jeb Bush Calls for Curtailing Costs of Social Security and Medicare

Jeb Bush on Tuesday introduced a set of proposals aimed at improving the financial health of Medicare and Social Security, calling for a reduction in subsidies for high-income seniors and an increase in the Social Security retirement age.

Mr. Bush, the former Florida governor, also suggested a series of incentives intended to benefit seniors who work well into their 60s.

“We need to recognize that Americans are living longer, healthier lives, and we should make it easier for those who choose to work longer,” Mr. Bush wrote in a post on Medium.com, published on Tuesday, noting that life expectancy had increased significantly in recent decades, straining the entitlement programs. “Social Security’s structure still discourages work past the age of 62. Reforms should update Social Security to respect seniors’ desires and abilities to work later in life.”

His plan includes a call for “bipartisan Medicare premium support” — a much debated approach championed by Republicans like Representative Paul Ryan in the past — which would allow private health care plans, traditional Medicare and other entities to compete on price and other factors. Seniors’ premium support would be based on the average on those prices, Mr. Bush said, estimating a 6 percent reduction. (Democrats have feared that such an approach would imperil traditional Medicare and that government contributions would not keep pace with inflation.)

Addressing Medicare costs, Mr. Bush vowed to improve management practices, drawing on recommendations from the Government Accountability Office to curb improper payments. Mr. Bush also said he would allow seniors to keep their health savings accounts to ameliorate out-of-pocket spending. A senior’s health plan or provider could likewise contribute money to a savings account.

Mr. Bush, who has tried to position himself as the most policy-oriented candidate in a crowded Republican field, embraced many of the Social Security reforms introduced by the Simpson-Bowles Commission, created under President Obama to recommend long-term fiscal improvements. Using the commission’s work as a model, Mr. Bush said, he suggested shifting eligibility ages by a month every year starting in 2022. (He noted that workers are eligible for full Social Security benefits at 66, with a gradual increase to 67 under current law.)

Mr. Bush also identified three proposals, which he said had received bipartisan support, to slow the growth of Social Security costs: providing a minimum retirement benefit for low-income workers; reducing projected benefits for wealthy current workers once they reach retirement; and adjusting the formula used to calculate how Social Security checks are updated each year.

Some Republican candidates, including former Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas and former Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, have criticized attempts to rein in the costs of entitlements, with Mr. Huckabee even calling it “theft” to reduce benefits for people who have long paid into the system.