Social Security, Medicare posts vacant for 3 years

WASHINGTON >> Key posts overseeing financial health of Social Security and Medicare have been vacant for more than three years, leaving programs without independent accountability in the face of dire predictions about approaching insolvency.

With Washington corroded by partisanship and consumed by political crises, gridlock has become the norm and hundreds of senior government jobs remain unfilled. For beneficiaries and taxpayers the lack of “public trustees” for Social Security and Medicare means a loss of outside supervision over bedrock middle-class programs.

Most Americans may not realize there’s a role in government for public trustees of Social Security and Medicare, but insiders say special advisers keep annual financial reports honest by acting as a check on ever-present temptation for political appointees to tweak numbers.

“The public really doesn’t have a representative sitting at the table with the government officials, and I think that is concerning,” said Kathleen Sebelius, who was Health and Human Services secretary under President Barack Obama.

The public trustees — one Republican, one Democrat — are usually economists or retirement experts. They join four other trustees who are senior political appointees — the secretaries of the Treasury, Health and Human Services and Labor departments and the Social Security commissioner. Together they oversee annual financial reports and certify estimates are sound and unbiased.

Public trustees require Senate confirmation. Traditionally they are picked by the White House and the leadership of both parties, then nominated by the president. The White House has announced President Donald Trump’s intention to nominate former Social Security official James Lockhart to fill the Republican seat; Democrats say they’re working with the administration on a Democratic candidate.

Trustees serve for four years, and terms can be extended. Obama, toward the end of his administration, re-nominated the incumbent public trustees for a second term. But with 2016 elections approaching, the Senate didn’t take a final vote and posts have been vacant since.

“What this speaks to is the hyper-partisanship of everything in Washington,” said Bruce Vladeck, a former Medicare chief who chairs the board of the Medicare Rights Center advocacy group. “The absence of public trustees is a reflection of the growing indifference in Washington to actually operating the government.”

This year’s Social Security and Medicare report found both programs in deteriorating health. The insolvency date for Medicare’s giant inpatient trust fund moved three years closer, to 2026. For Social Security, insolvency remained unchanged for 2034. The cost of the retirement program was projected to exceed its annual income in 2018.