Word: breaux
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Breaux: The baby boomers are already in fact experienced in investing. They'll be much more comfortable with it than the current seniors. But they're not playing the stock market with this. The concept is to do exactly what is done for me in the federal employees' retirement plan. The only thing I have to do is check one of three boxes: whether I want to put my investments in a high-risk, medium-risk or low-risk account. That's the only decision I make...
...Breaux: I'd change the whole thing. The whole program is a 1965 model that was good in 1965. But it's outdated, and it's micromanaged by Congress. You have to reform it fundamentally with a program that combines the best of what government can do with the best of what the private sector can do. I would allow people who want to stay right where they are in the current fee-for-service program to stay there, but create a new entity. It would be private insurance that would compete...
...Breaux: You'd have to guarantee that no plan can adversely risk-select their patients. And you can do that easily. That's why government still has to be involved in this. It's not just giving a senior a voucher and saying, "Go buy your health plan." It still would be government supervised, but not government micromanaged...
...Breaux: Medicare should cover prescription drugs, but you have to reform the program. Prescription drugs would be provided through a competitive model. Again, that's what we have in the federal employees' plan. I have insurance that covers my prescription drugs. To give you an example, my father, who is on Medicare, and I walk into the same drugstore and buy the same prescription. The retail price of the drug is $100. My father will have to pay $100 because Medicare doesn't cover prescription drugs. But I get a volume discount in the federal plan, which will bring...
...Even some moderate Democrats agree. Sen. John Breaux, who chairs the Senate Special Committee on Aging and has served on past commissions studying privatization, believes that Americans ought to have the option of investing some of their Social Security payroll tax in the market--just as congressmen and senators now do. "The current beneficiaries, I think, have been unfortunately scared into believing that if the government doesn't do it all, like we have been doing since 1935, then it won't be safe," Breaux told me in a recent interview. "I think that's not correct. The stock market...