Medicare trustees issued the first ever statutory warning over the long-term finances of the government-backed health programme for senior citizens on Monday.
The warning, required by law, came as new projections showed the share of Medicare costs paid out of general taxation would exceed 45 per cent by 2013. More realistic assumptions suggest this threshold could be breached as early as 2010.
“Today is a historic occasion and not a happy one,” Hank Paulson, the Treasury secretary, said. He said he was frustrated at the lack of response to his efforts to generate a bipartisan initiative to tackle the problem of financing Medicare and the other main entitlement programmes, Medicaid and Social Security.
“There was a time when I was a bit more optimistic than I was today,” he said. “I am getting a little bit tired of playing solitaire.”
[ PDF ] 2007 Medicare Trustees Report
» HHS Press Release on the 2007 Medicare Trustees Report
» Financial Times
