Government Healthcare Policy, Business and Technology

HHS concerned about Medicare's long-term sustainability

Modern Healthcare: A shrinking taxpayer base, swelling beneficiary numbers and growing healthcare costs all threaten Medicare's long-term viability, according to the HHS, and the agency warned the program would need to increase its revenue or drastically reduce benefits to balance its budget.

In a wide-ranging report issued last week, HHS said the Medicare trust fund "is not projected to be sustainable over the long term with the projected tax rates and expenditure levels."

The agency estimates that the ratio of workers paying taxes to beneficiaries eligible for Medicare will drop from 3:1 in 2016 to 2:1 by 2091. In addition, healthcare costs continue to rise faster than the taxable wages used to support the program. The shortfall is expected to equal $3.3 trillion over the next 75 years.

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