Medicare not a budget buster anymore

[Luddly Neddite]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/28/u...udget-buster-anymore.html?abt=0002&abg=0&_r=0

Medicare cost projections and reality
Real and projected spending per Medicare recipient, in 2014 dollars

See the graphic at the link.

You’re looking at the biggest story involving the federal budget and a crucial one for the future of the American economy. Every year for the last six years in a row, the Congressional Budget Office has reduced its estimate for how much the federal government will need to spend on Medicare in coming years. The latest reduction came in a report from the budget office on Wednesday morning.

The changes are big. The difference between the current estimate for Medicare’s 2019 budget and the estimate for the 2019 budget four years ago is about $95 billion. That sum is greater than the government is expected to spend that year on unemployment insurance, welfare and Amtrak — combined. It’s equal to about one-fifth of the expected Pentagon budget in 2019. Widely discussed policy changes, like raising the estate tax, would generate just a tiny fraction of the budget savings relative to the recent changes in Medicare’s spending estimates.

 

[Katzndogz]

Death panels should reduce the cost of medicare considerably. Just get more people to die sooner.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/31/health/end-of-life-talks-may-finally-overcome-politics.html

 

[Harry Dresden]

Death panels should reduce the cost of medicare considerably. Just get more people to die sooner.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/31/health/end-of-life-talks-may-finally-overcome-politics.html

you can sign up at the closest office....just a suggestion...

 

[Stephanie]

Really, does anyone take the propaganda the Nyslimes puts out seriously?

 

[Darlene]

Really, does anyone take the propaganda the Nyslimes puts out seriously?

I don't.