Hot Topics: Ryan Proposes Sweeping Medicare Changes

When U.S. House budget chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., unveiled his long-term deficit reduction blueprint this week, the most controversial part was his proposal to radically remake the Medicare program.

Ryan would convert Medicare from an entitlement program with defined benefits to a voucher system, in which the government would pay a fixed sum of money to beneficiaries, which they would then use to buy their own coverage from a list of government-approved private insurers. In a speech to the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington think tank, Ryan said his plan "repairs Medicare's broken structure and saves the program for current and future beneficiaries." 

The proposal would allow 26 million older baby boomers to stay in the existing Medicare defined-benefit system. But those born after 1957 would be offered vouchers to buy private insurance, according to a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analysis of the proposal. Because private insurers have higher administrative costs and pay higher fees to health providers than Medicare does, CBO concluded that privatizing Medicare would compel recipients to either pay higher premiums or, if they could not afford them, to buy policies that provided less coverage. According to Forbes.com blogger Rick Ungar's breakdown of the numbers, starting in 2022 younger boomers would receive $8,000 a year from Medicare and have to come up with at least $12,510 to cover their private insurance premiums. That's roughly double the current out-of-pocket cost to seniors.

Ryan's plan has its defenders, such as Fortune columnist Shawn Tully, who says it's "the best choice in a world of poor alternatives." A critical Mark Miller, however, writes at Reuters.com that "for middle-class and low-income seniors, Medicare privatization will be a disaster."

How Well Can You Spell? Back in the day, you learned the "i before e, except after c" rule in an effort to win that spiffy Parker pen set that was first prize at your school's spelling bee. But now that you're older, AARP is touting competitive spelling as a great way to keep your memory sharp. The organization has announced its 16th National Spelling Bee, which will be held in Cheyenne, Wyo., on June 17 and 18. It's open to anyone 50 or older, and contestants will compete for more than $5,000 in prizes.

Dylan Censored in China: The answer, my friend, may be blowing in the wind, but not for the 6,000 Chinese who filled an arena in Beijing to hear a concert by onetime protest singer Bob Dylan. The 68-year-old folk-rock icon reportedly had difficulty even getting a permit to perform from Chinese authorities, who've kept an even tighter rein on western performers since singer Bjork raised their ire by shouting "Tibet!" in support of Tibetan democracy protesters at a 2008 concert in Shanghai. Dylan, however, stuck to a song list pre-approved by Chinese censors, who vetted lyrics for anything that might be considered too politically provocative. As a result, the audience got to hear "Forever Young," but none of Dylan's trademark protest music, such as "The Times They Are a-Changin'" and "Chimes of Freedom."

Mad Men Returns, But Not Until 2012: Fans of the AMC series, which depicts the tempestuous lives of a hard-drinking crew of Madison Avenue advertising people in the 1960s, will have to wait a little longer than expected to see how Don's new marriage to his young secretary works out, or whether his beautiful but increasingly psychotic ex-wife Betty finally cracks up, or whether Pete and Peggy finally realize that they're meant to be a couple and quit Sterling Cooper to join a hippie commune. Washington Post TV writer Lisa de Moraes reports that the award-winning show has been renewed for three more seasons and that the full cast and creator-producer Matt Weiner will return, but that the next new episodes won't begin until March 2012. Apparently, AMC, which also is the home of hit series such as Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead, has a few other new shows that they want us to watch first.

Harvard Encourages Social Entrepreneurs: A new Harvard University program will teach retiring boomers how to leverage their business and professional experience to help others, The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports that Harvard's new Advanced Leadership Initiative will pay its fellows $50,000 to audit classes; attend weekly seminars with law, education, government, and business professors; and enlist Harvard students to help them develop nonprofit projects in communities. Rosabeth Moss Kanter, the Harvard business professor who's spearheading the effort, says the goal is to create a volunteer corps of older people who have the expertise and leadership skills to solve pressing social problems.

Funeral Fads: Boomers have altered just about everything else in American culture, so why should the American way of death be any different? Sue Kruskopf, founder of the personalized funeral pre-planning website mywonderfullife.com, tells The Orange County Register that boomers increasingly are embracing trends such as theme funerals and online "life books" to which their friends and family can upload photos and reminiscences.

A New Vision? Joseph F. Coughlin, director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's AgeLab, says in this YouTube video that we've already got enough technological advances lying around in corporate and university laboratories to deal with boomers' needs as they age. The problem, he maintains, is that we're not working hard enough to find innovative, life-enriching ways to apply developments such as mobile communications technology. ("Do you really want to check your blood pressure 24-7? Don't you want to have fun?") He urges boomers to think about "what you want to build -- what is your Cathedral vision for how you want to age tomorrow?"

Swimming Novice Qualifies for National Games: If you need more proof that it's never too late to take up a new athletic passion, check out the Kansas City Star profile of Jeanine Yeager, a 52-year-old who took up swimming laps at a local community center pool last April to get a little exercise. "I wanted to tone up," she explains. The pool's director, Terri Lees, noticed Yeager and was impressed by her natural ability, even though she had never swam competitively and only knew one swimming stroke, the freestyle. Lees persuaded Yeager to train every morning and to learn the nuances of doing flip turns. In addition, she got Yeager to study videos of herself to improve her technique. After just eight weeks of training, Yeager entered her first competitive meet, the Missouri State Senior Games, and astonished everyone -- including herself -- by winning medals in four of her five events, including a silver in the 50-meter breaststroke. She's now gearing up for the 2011 National Senior Games, which will be held in June in Houston. "As we age, we often think we're fading into the background of our life," she says. "But I am not too old to do these things. Age is not a deterrent. It's a mindset."

Iggy-nomious: If you're not a fan of early punk rock, you may have been a little, uh, puzzled by the sight of a skeletal, shirtless, undulating Iggy Pop on Thursday night's episode of American Idol, where he performed his 1986 song "Real Wild Child (Wild One)." Sixty-three-year-old Pop, who pioneered crowd surfing and onstage dishabille long before Lady Gaga was even born, still is startlingly lithe and capable of shocking as he cast a lecherous glare toward J-Lo. Los Angeles Times blogger Randall Roberts comments that "hopefully, some of the less magnetic potential Idols were taking notes, as in, 'when in doubt...act crazy and shimmy around on the stage.'"