Mounting Medicare costs in the U.S.Americans should not be smug smug adj. smug·ger, smug·gest Exhibiting or feeling great or offensive satisfaction with oneself or with one's situation; self-righteously complacent: . We are moving closer to Canadian-style healthcare than many realize, as the government takes over responsibility for more of our healthcare system. Healthcare spending in the U.S. has jumped from about 5 percent of GDP GDP (guanosine diphosphate): see guanine. in 1960 to 16 percent by 2004, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. the White House. Worse, almost half of the "healthcare dollars" spent now are being spent by government, as the Wall Street Journal has noted. That unhealthy trend is headed up. Medicare spending, per capita [Latin, By the heads or polls.] A term used in the Descent and Distribution of the estate of one who dies without a will. It means to share and share alike according to the number of individuals. , has been skyrocketing at twice the rate of the country's Gross Domestic Product. The new prescription drug prescription drug Prescription medication Pharmacology An FDA-approved drug which must, by federal law or regulation, be dispensed only pursuant to a prescription–eg, finished dose form and active ingredients subject to the provisos of the Federal Food, Drug, benefit, added in the so-called Medicare Modernization Act of 2003, will drive that spending even higher--since it increases Medicare's financial burden by more than a third, according to a Cato Institute "Cato" redirects here. For Cato, see Cato. The Institute's stated mission is "to broaden the parameters of public policy debate to allow consideration of the traditional American principles of limited government, individual liberty, free markets, and peace" by striving "to achieve briefing paper. The "inevitable growth of Medicare alone," says the Wall Street Journal, "will lead us far down the path toward government-rationed health care a la Europe or Canada." The cost of the drug benefit was deliberately underestimated to help get it through Congress. Within a year after passage, the official estimated cost of the benefit increased by 86 percent. By one measure, Medicare's unfunded liability amounts to $21.9 trillion, about double the size of the American economy in 2005. Yet, says Cato's study "Medicare Prescription Drugs," as large as that figure is, it doesn't fully capture the financial crisis. "In addition to the new drug benefit, Medicare Parts A and B are also under-funded. According to the trustees, the entire Medicare program falls short by some $61.6 trillion" in 2005 dollars. To fully fund all the promised benefits would require an increase in the Medicare payroll tax Payroll Tax Tax an employer withholds and/or pays on behalf of their employees based on the wage or salary of the employee. In most countries, including the U.S., both state and federal authorities collect some form of payroll tax. from 2.9 percent today to a staggering 13.4 percent, calculates the Heritage Foundation's Center for Data Analysis. Spending on Medicare between fiscal 2007 and 2011 is set, under current law, to total about $2 trillion. President Bush has proposed a mere snip of this growth in his latest budget, calling for "cuts" of about $36 billion over five years. |
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