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A few weeks ago I said:
Medical expenses now eat 16% of U.S. G.D.P. That percentage has doubled every thirty years; it was 8% thirty years ago, and 4% thirty years before that. It will probably double again, to 32%, in the next thirty years.
For many years policy makers have warned of an upcoming "Medicare Train Wreck," when rising medical costs collide with a surge of retiring baby boomers. Wednesday’s Wall Street Journal reminds us again:
A recently released report by the program’s trustees found that within seven years Medicare taxes will fall short of Medicare expenses by more than 45%. … Until a few years ago, Social Security and Medicare were taking in more than they spent, on the whole. Thus they provided revenue for other federal programs. That situation is now reversed, and last year the combined deficits in the two programs claimed 5.3% of federal income tax revenues. In 15 years these two programs will require more than a fourth of income tax revenues: … By 2030, … these two programs will require almost one out of every two federal income tax dollars.
If the world stays relatively boring, this will be the biggest US politics issue over the next twenty years. The key questions:
Who will pay: raise taxes, limit treatments covered, tax docs, or cut off the richer & younger?
Who will be blamed: docs, the old, the young, the rich, the poor, Republicans, Democrats, corporations, immigrants, foreigners?
Added: Income tax is only half of federal taxes, but most of Medicaid, which is about as big as Medicare, also goes to the elderly.
Medicare Train Wreck
see gov. etc stats.70% of M 'care, M' caid are spend on 'last circa six months' and legacy problemslike care for people who smoked cigarettes.
For those of you who think illegals do not have access to medicaid/medicare. Our government setaside one billion dollars in 2005 for the treatment of illegals to be split among the border states for the care of illegals medical bills. I believe that I read in the recent past that more money has been taken out of medicare for the same reason. You can find this information on google.com under medicare and illegal immigration. You will also find other cost listed there. As for the young lady who questioned medicare costs, I for one have paid for medicare for most of my working life in addition to state, local and federal taxes. One of the sadest days of my life was when I was told that I would no longer have medical insurance from my employer and had to sign up for medicare. This is the worst medical insurance I have had in my lifetime and as I said I have paid into this for most of my working life and it currently cost me$96.00 a month. So when out government sees fit to take funds from the medicare fund for illegals while they cut my benefits and increase my premium this does not bode will with me.