When Medicare was implemented back in 1965, it was projected that the program would never cost more than $10 billion. Its costs today? About $490 billion annually. Medicare Part A that covers hospital benefits officially started paying out more in benefits than it collects in revenues this year. It will go broke in seven years when the Medicare Trust Fund runs out of the alleged surpluses it has been stashing away over the years. All this despite the fact that private plans are subsidizing close to $90 billion annually in Medicare’s reimbursement cuts to providers.
Yet President Obama now wants to make a Medicare-style insurance option open to everyone to tackle the problem of the uninsured. What will this do our health care? Read all about it here in my latest Forbes column.
Watch my interview on the Medicare debacle on Fox Business’ Stuart Varney Show here.