Medicare's Fiscal Ruin

[Kamaji]

Medicare's Fiscal Ruin

Are Medicare's fiscal problems even worse than the headline numbers suggest?

Peter Suderman
January 2022 Issue

The most recent annual report on the fiscal health of Medicare from the program's trustees wasn't much of a surprise. But it was yet another warning of the program's looming fiscal ruin.

Like the 2020 edition, the 2021 Medicare Trustees Report estimated that Medicare's hospital insurance trust fund will be insolvent in 2026. At that point, the fund will have to rely on incoming revenues, essentially operating on a cash-flow basis—and there won't be enough cash.

In 2026, the hospital insurance fund will be able to cover only about 91 percent of its bills. In the years that follow, that gap will grow only larger. Without changes to the program's financing, doctors, hospitals, and other medical providers will face rapidly reduced payments from the program. This will have ripple effects on the provision and availability of health care and on the wider American economy, roughly a sixth of which revolves around health care services.

The report also provided reason to suspect that Medicare's fiscal problems may be even worse than the headline numbers suggest: The fiscal forecast assumes that an array of cost-reduction measures, including a series of caps on Medicare physician payments and bonuses, will persist. But the trustees noted that Medicare's "long-range costs could be substantially higher than shown throughout much of the report if the cost-reduction measures prove problematic and new legislation scales them back."

The report seemed to generate little concern on Capitol Hill. It was released at the end of August, as Democrats in Congress were pursuing two massive, interlocked spending packages: a -bipartisan $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill (about $550 billion of which constituted "new" spending) and a partisan spending bill focused on climate and welfare programs that was initially priced around $3.5 trillion.

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Source:  https://reason.com/2021/12/09/medicares-fiscal-ruin/

[libertybele]

The govt took money out of our paychecks every payday for Medicare costs. So I see this as money due us.  In addition we are forced off of our private insurance and onto Medicare at 65 AND we have to pay a medicare premium which doesn't cover a whole lot.

I don't want to hear that Medicare is running out of money. How many ILLEGALS are getting Medicare???

[Kamaji]

The govt took money out of our paychecks every payday for Medicare costs. So I see this as money due us.  In addition we are forced off of our private insurance and onto Medicare at 65 AND we have to pay a medicare premium which doesn't cover a whole lot.

I don't want to hear that Medicare is running out of money. How many ILLEGALS are getting Medicare???

Why?  It was just another income tax, just like the portion of the taxes that goes under that name, and just like the social security tax on income.

It wasn't an insurance premium or investment premium paid to a private insurer or investment company in exchange for a binding legal promise; it was just a tax collected from you by force by a government that chose to gaslight you by calling it something other than what it was - a regressive flat rate income tax.

[LMAO]

This also applies to Social Security. Social Security was not money that was taken out of your check for your retirement. The money taken out of peoples paycheck today for Social Security has long been spent

I have heard leftist claim that Medicare‘s problems are  why government needs to take over and go to a universal healthcare program but they don’t connect that Medicare is already a government run healthcare program

That’s why the Bernie Sanders Medicare for All idea  is such a cruel joke. We can’t even pay for Medicare for some

[Kamaji]

This also applies to Social Security. Social Security was not money that was taken out of your check for your retirement. The money taken out of peoples paycheck today for Social Security has long been spent

I have heard leftist claim that Medicare‘s problems are  why government needs to take over and go to a universal healthcare program but they don’t connect that Medicare is already a government run healthcare program

That’s why the Bernie Sanders Medicare for All idea  is such a cruel joke. We can’t even pay for Medicare for some

[Fishrrman]

It's been ten years since I paid payroll taxes, but what did Medicare take out?
Wasn't it something like 1.5% ??

That's going to be goin' up, of course.
I predict to around 3.5-4.5% ...

[EdinVA]

 

[Hoodat]

the 2021 Medicare Trustees Report estimated that Medicare's hospital insurance trust fund will be insolvent in 2026.

Medicare trust fund?  lol

[Hoodat]

Why?  It was just another income tax, just like the portion of the taxes that goes under that name, and just like the social security tax on income.

It wasn't an insurance premium or investment premium paid to a private insurer or investment company in exchange for a binding legal promise; it was just a tax collected from you by force by a government that chose to gaslight you by calling it something other than what it was - a regressive flat rate income tax.

Correctamundo.

[Hoodat]

It's been ten years since I paid payroll taxes, but what did Medicare take out?
Wasn't it something like 1.5% ??

2.9%

Consider a person who begins working at age 25, collecting an salary of $40,000.  But instead of handing that 2.9% over to the government, they invest that money instead, collecting a modest 5% interest.  When that person reaches age 65, they will have collected around $150,000 in their 'Medicare' account.

From that point going forward, they would be able to draw $862/month to cover medical expenses every single month until they turn 90.  And if they die before they turn 90, then their kids get an inheritance.

So yeah, that piddly amount you pay can mean the difference between comfort and poverty beyond retirement age.  Government is evil.