Tag: medicare trust fund

This year I, with my sidekick Michael Wicklein, took a more-careful-than-usual look at the Trustees Report for the Medicare program. After all, Medicare – like Social Security – relies on payroll tax revenues, so it’s useful to understand the competing needs. Traditional Medicare is composed of two programs. The first – Part A, Hospital Insuranc…

The brief’s key findings are: The 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA) included roughly 165 provisions to improve Medicare’s finances. The Medicare Trustees Report, which reflects the ACA provisions, shows dramatically lower cost projections for Medicare in the future. The Medicare actuaries also produce alternative projections assuming that the legislated restraints on growth in payments to…