Outside the Beltway

Medicare To Be Bankrupt In 13 Years

· Friday, May 13, 2011 · 7 comments

The latest Medicare Trustee’s report is fairly sobering:

The new Medicare trustees report says the trust fund is now likely to run out of money in 2024, five years earlier than predicted last year.

The reason, according to CMS, is that the economic recovery has been slower than expected — making tax revenues come in more slowly.

At a press briefing, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the change in the projection was due to “technical changes in the economic assumptions underlying the projections.”

Which is Washington-speak for “those rosy economic assumptions we made were pretty much crap.”

 

FILED UNDER: Deficit and Debt, Healthcare Policy, US Politics, , ,
Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. Mithras says:
    Friday, 13 May 2011 at 16:12

    CMS also said the passage of the health care reform law added eight years of life to the Medicare trust fund. Without the law, the agency said, the trust fund would go into the red in 2016.

    In last year’s report, the trustees predicted the cost savings and tax increases in the Affordable Care Act would extend the life of the Medicare trust fund for 12 years. At that time, it was expected to run out of money in 2029, rather than 2017.

    Then we had better accelerate implementation of the ACA and wrap up the stupid red-state court cases against the individual mandate.

  2. Doug Mataconis says:
    Friday, 13 May 2011 at 16:14

    Mirthas

    Did you read the part that said the law only extends the life of the fund by eight years?

  3. Patrick T. McGuire says:
    Friday, 13 May 2011 at 16:23

    The new Medicare trustees report says the trust fund is now likely to run out of money in 2024, five years earlier than predicted last year.

    And by the end of the year, that date will be moved up again.

  4. john personna says:
    Friday, 13 May 2011 at 16:30

    Were your economic projections better Doug?

    (Most projections are wrong, but people want to hear them anyway. See Taken.)

  5. Neil Hudelson says:
    Friday, 13 May 2011 at 17:01

    2024? That’s, like, so long from now. We have at least 10 years or so to tackle the problem. I don’t see the big deal.

  6. Mithras says:
    Friday, 13 May 2011 at 17:22

    Just kidding, Doug. We need to eliminate Bush’s prescription drug benefit, to start. That was just a massive giveaway to Pharma.

  7. john personna says:
    Friday, 13 May 2011 at 19:13

    Sorry, just looking back. My phone edited “Taleb” to “Taken” when I wasn’t looking.

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