Medicare Is On A March Toward Insolvency And Is Bringing The Country With It

“Nothing Will Sooner Finish Off ‘Medicare As We Know It’ Than To Continue Its Present March Into Insolvency.”(Editorial, “Medicare For A New Century,” The Wall Street Journal, 4/6/11)

CBO: Medicare Spending Continues To Increase Leading To “Growing Budget Deficits And Surging Federal Debt.” ”In particular, spending on the government’s major mandatory health care programs— Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP, and health insurance subsidies to be provided through the new insurance exchanges—along with Social Security will increase from roughly 10 percent of GDP in 2011 to about 16 percent over the next 25 years. If revenues stay close to their average share of GDP for the past 40 years, that rise in spending will lead to rapidly growing budget deficits and surging federal debt.” (Congressional Budget Office, “The Budget And Economic Outlook: Fiscal Years 2011-2021,” 1/26/11)

Medicare Expenditures Are Going To Increase At A Faster Rate Than Economic Growth. “Total Medicare expenditures were $509 billion in 2009 and are projected under current law to increase in future years at a somewhat faster pace than either workers’ earnings or the economy overall.” (“The 2010 Annual Report Of The Boards Of Trustees Of The Federal Hospital Insurance And Federal Supplementary Medical Insurance Trust Funds,” CMS.gov, 8/5/10)

The Medicare Trustees: “Prompt Action Is Necessary” To Keep The Trust Fund From Going Bankrupt. “We believe that prompt action is necessary to address both the exhaustion of the HI trust fund and the anticipated excess growth in HI, SMI Part B, and SMI Part D expenditures.” (“The 2010 Annual Report Of The Boards Of Trustees Of The Federal Hospital Insurance And Federal Supplementary Medical Insurance Trust Funds,” CMS.gov, 8/5/10)

Medicare Will Begin Running A Deficit In 2024, Five Years Earlier Than Projected. “Caught in the sluggish recovery from the last recession, Social Security and Medicare face an increasingly dismal fiscal future, the federal government reported Friday in its annual review of the two mammoth entitlement programs. Medicare, which now provides health insurance to some 47 million elderly and disabled Americans, could begin running a deficit in 2024, five years earlier than projected last year.” (Noam Levey, “Insolvency Looms For Federal Entitlement Programs, Government Warns,” Los Angeles Times, 5/13/11)

Access To Care Will Be In Serious Jeopardy If Congress Doesn’t Change The Medicare Status Quo

The Medicare Trustees Report: Congress Will Have To Intervene To Prevent “Severe Problems” With Access To Health Care. “Well before that point, Congress would have to intervene to prevent the withdrawal of providers from the Medicare market and the severe problems with beneficiary access to care that would result.” (“The 2010 Annual Report Of The Boards Of Trustees Of The Federal Hospital Insurance And Federal Supplementary Medical Insurance Trust Funds,” CMS.gov, 8/5/10)

Doctors Across The Country Say They’ve Been Forced To Shift Away From Medicare Patients Toward High-Paying, Privately Insured Or Self-Paying Patients In Response To Decreasing Medicare Payments “Top-ranked primary care doctor Linda Yau is one of three physicians with the District’s Foxhall Internists group who recently announced they will no longer be accepting Medicare patients. ‘It’s not easy. But you realize you either do this or you don’t stay in business,’ she said. Doctors across the country describe similar decisions, complaining that they’ve been forced to shift away from Medicare toward higher-paying, privately insured or self-paying patients in response to years of penny-pinching by Congress. And that’s not even taking into account a long-postponed rate-setting method that is on track to slash Medicare’s payment rates to doctors by 23 percent Dec. 1.” (N.C. Aizenman, “Doctors Say Medicare Cuts Force Painful Decision About Elderly Patients,” The Washington Post, 11/26/10)

When The Trust Funds Run Dry, Medicare Benefits Will Be Cut By At Least 10%, And By 25% In 2045. “If the trust funds run out, the programs no longer would be able to pay full benefits. … Medicare could pay 90% starting in 2024, dropping to 75% in 2045.” (Richard Wolf, “Medicare, Social Security Running Out Of Money Faster,” USA Today, 5/13/11)

The Democrat Health Care Law Created A Panel, Independent From Congress, That Will Be In Charge Of Controlling Costs And Possibly Rationing Medicare

The Independent Payment Advisory Board Was Created By ObamaCare As A Means To Control Medicare Costs. “The Independent Payment Advisory Board was created by the 2010 health care law. Last month, in releasing his deficit-reduction plan, President Obama called for increasing the panel’s authority, saying it was critical to controlling the costs of the program, estimated at $524 billion in fiscal 2010.” (Bara Vaida, “Controversial Health Board Braces For Continued Battles Over Medicare,” The Washington Post, 5/8/11)

• The IPAB Will Make Recommendations To Reduce Spending In Medicare. “Beginning with fiscal 2015, if Medicare is projected to grow too quickly, the IPAB will make binding recommendations to reduce spending.” (Bara Vaida, “Controversial Health Board Braces For Continued Battles Over Medicare,” The Washington Post, 5/8/11)

“Republicans And Some Democrats Have Denounced The IPAB, Saying It Will Be Made Up Of Unelected Bureaucrats Who Will Wind Up Rationing Care To Medicare Beneficiaries.” (Bara Vaida, “Controversial Health Board Braces For Continued Battles Over Medicare,” The Washington Post, 5/8/11)

Republicans And Democrats Want To Eliminate The IPAB, Saying It Would Usurp Congresses Spending Power Over Medicare. “But not only do Republicans and some Democrats oppose increasing the power of the board, they also want to eliminate it altogether. Opponents fear that the panel, known as the Independent Payment Advisory Board, would usurp Congressional spending power over one of the government’s most important and expensive social programs.” (Robert Pear, “Bipartisan Objection To Panel To Curb Medicare Costs,” The New York Times, 4/20/11)

Pennsylvania Democrat Allyson Schwartz Said Medicare Spending Decisions Should Not Be Left To An Unelected Board. “Representative Allyson Y. Schwartz, a Pennsylvania Democrat prominent on health care issues, said: ‘It’s our constitutional duty, as members of Congress, to take responsibility for Medicare and not turn decisions over to a board. Abdicating this responsibility, whether to insurance companies or to an unelected commission, undermines our ability to represent our constituents, including seniors and the disabled.’” (Robert Pear, “Bipartisan Objection To Panel To Curb Medicare Costs,” The New York Times, 4/20/11)

Democrat Congressman Pete Stark: “Why Have Legislators?” “‘Why have legislators?’ asked Representative Pete Stark of California, the senior Democrat on the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health.” (Robert Pear, “Bipartisan Objection To Panel To Curb Medicare Costs,” The New York Times, 4/20/11)

• Pete Stark (D-CA): “But, In Its Effort To Limit The Growth Of Medicare Spending, The Board Is Likely To Set Inadequate Payment Rates For Health Care Providers, Which Could Endanger Patient Care.’” (Robert Pear, “Bipartisan Objection To Panel To Curb Medicare Costs,” The New York Times, 4/20/11)

The Democrats 2010 Health Care Bill Made Cuts To Medicare And Medicare Advantage

The Health Care Bill Cut Medicare By Roughly “$500 Billion Over The Next Decade.” “To cover the cost of those changes, the compromise would impose a 3.8 percent Medicare tax on investment income for wealthy taxpayers, a levy that would come in addition to a Senate-proposed increase in the regular payroll tax for those families. And it would slice an additional $60 billion from Medicare, with the privately run program known as Medicare Advantage targeted for particularly deep cuts, bringing the total reduction in projected spending on the program to more than $500 billion over the next decade.” (Lori Montgomery and Paul Kane, “House Leaders Announce $940 Billion Health-Care Compromise Bill,” The Washington Post, 3/19/10)

A Report By The Chief Medicare Actuary Said That Medicare Advantage Programs Will Be Cut By Roughly 50 Percent In The Health Care Bill. “The study, by the chief Medicare actuary, Richard S. Foster, provides a detailed, rigorous analysis of the law. . . . In his report, Mr. Foster made these points: . . . Cuts in federal payments to private Medicare Advantage plans will ‘result in less generous benefit packages,’ the report said. By 2017, it said, ‘enrollment in Medicare Advantage plans will be lower by about 50 percent, from its projected level of 14.8 million under the prior law to 7.4 million under the new law.’” (Robert Pear, “Health Care Cost Increase Is Projected For New Law,” The New York Times, 4/23/10)