Norm Wernet, Ohio state director of the Alliance for Retired Americans, joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast to discuss two developments directly affecting retirees, disabled workers and their families.
The first is a notable bipartisan moment: U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno co-authored an op-ed with U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren calling for scrapping the Social Security earnings cap, currently set at around $184,000, above which workers stop contributing payroll taxes for the rest of the year. Wernet described the pairing as an odd couple and said the Alliance hopes Moreno holds to the position, calling it the most important single step available to extend Social Security's solvency into the next century.
The second is a pilot program in seven states, including Ohio, related to AI-driven prior authorization to Medicare Advantage plans. Wernet said the program is delaying and denying care that workers have relied on for years, with a financial incentive built into the algorithm to say no. The House Appropriations Committee has received enough complaints to review the program in the current budget cycle.
- U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno joined U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren in co-authoring an op-ed calling for scrapping the Social Security earnings cap, a development Wernet called music to the Alliance's ears. The Social Security trust fund currently holds about $2.7 trillion, but is being drawn down as the Baby Boomer Generation retires. Scrapping the cap would extend solvency well into the next century and prevent the approximate $500-per-month benefit cut that would hit current and future retirees in 2032 if Congress does nothing before then.
- A pilot program called the Wasteful and Inappropriate Service Reduction (WISeR) program is applying AI-driven prior authorization requirements to Medicare Advantage plans in seven states. Wernet said 85 percent to 90 percent of denials eventually get overturned, but the delays can stretch for months. This leaves workers who have relied on specific treatments, including those receiving pain management related to workplace injuries, unable to access the care they have been receiving, while the algorithm generates denials that financially benefit the company operating it, he added.
- Wernet pointed to the Alliance for Retired Americans' voting record database at retiredamericans.org as a tool for holding elected officials accountable, citing Ohio Sen. John Husted's votes against Medicaid, which is the primary financing mechanism for long-term care in nursing homes. It’s an example of the kind of record voters need to examine before the next round of Senate elections.
A Personal Connection to What Is at Stake
Norm Wernet has been involved in the labor movement for decades, including work with AFSCME Council 8. He is 80 years old. He is familiar with Social Security. His father died at 48, leaving his mother with two children still at home. Social Security allowed her to re-enter the workforce and keep the family stable.
He also mentioned a former work partner who was hit by a disability at 56. Social Security allowed him and his family to have a secure retirement. The two cases are the exact circumstances Social Security was built to address, Wernet said, built by workers for workers because the private sector would not provide that floor.
The Bipartisan Moment on Scrapping the Cap
For decades, the Alliance for Retired Americans and labor organizations across the country have been calling for an end to the Social Security earnings cap, the threshold above which workers stop paying payroll taxes into the system. That threshold currently sits around $184,000. Once a worker's earnings pass it, their Social Security contributions stop for the rest of the year. High earners effectively pay into the system for only part of each year, while everyone else contributes on every paycheck.
What made recent weeks notable is that U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno, a conservative Republican, co-authored an op-ed with U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, one of the Senate's most progressive members, calling for scrapping the cap entirely. Wernet described the pairing as an odd couple and said the Alliance hopes Moreno holds to the position. If the cap is scrapped, Social Security's trust fund would be placed on a solid footing well into the next century, he said. If nothing is done, current and future retirees face an approximate $500-per-month benefit cut when the trust fund's current reserves run out, which projections indicate will occur around 2032.
Wernet noted that Ohio Sen. John Husted has characterized scrapping the cap as one of the largest tax increases imaginable, a framing Wernet said is simply wrong. Social Security is a social insurance system that workers built for themselves. It is not a government program funded by general taxes. Workers pay into it throughout their careers and draw on it when they retire, become disabled or lose a breadwinning spouse. Treating a correction to the cap structure as a tax increase, Wernet said, misunderstands what Social Security is and who it is for. Former U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, by contrast, has been a consistent ally on this issue for years and is running in Ohio's next Senate cycle, he added.
AI Prior Authorization in Medicare: An Experiment Workers Did Not Ask For
The second major issue Wernet addressed is a pilot program that Congress approved, which applies AI-driven prior-authorization requirements to Medicare Advantage plans. The program is running in seven states. Ohio was added this year. Wernet said it was sold as a way to address concerns that retirees were overusing the system. In practice, he said, it has worked out very differently.
The program requires prior authorization for specific categories of treatment before Medicare Advantage will cover them. Wernet said approximately 85 percent to 90 percent of the denials the algorithm generates are eventually overturned, but the delays can stretch for months. In the meantime, workers who have been receiving treatment for years, including specific pain management related to workplace injuries, are cut off while the appeal works its way through the system.
The element Wernet described as most troubling is the financial structure behind the algorithm. The company operating the AI system is paid in a way that creates an incentive to deny and delay, he said. A human being making the same decision has judgment and the possibility of a conscience. An algorithm operating under a financial incentive to say no has neither, Wernet said. He called it a way of lining corporate pockets at the direct expense of retirees who have already earned their Medicare benefits through decades of work.
The good news, Wernet said, is that the volume of complaints reaching the U.S. House Committee on Appropriations has been significant enough that the committee is now examining whether to scrap the program. He encouraged listeners to keep complaining. Their voices, he said, are what created that opening.
The Voting Record and Accountability
The Alliance for Retired Americans maintains a comprehensive voting record database at retiredamericans.org, tracking House and Senate votes on retiree issues going back years. Wernet said voting the record is one of the most important tools available to voters heading into the next round of Senate elections. He encouraged listeners to look up their representatives before they go to the polls.
More information on the Alliance for Retired Americans is available at retiredamericans.org.
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