While charges and counter-charges about Medicare are flying back and forth in Washington, hardly anyone seems to have noticed that Medicare's financial problems have already been solved. They were solved by the health reform bill enacted last year, what some people call ObamaCare.
So why isn't this front page news? Why aren't people dancing in the street? Why isn't the Obama administration boasting about this accomplishment far and wide? Probably because Medicare's financial problems are slated to be solved by the unconscionable rationing of health care for the elderly and the disabled.
The most recent Medicare Trustees report conveys the same message as the last one: On the day that Barack Obama signed the health reform bill, Medicare's long-term unfunded liability fell by $53 trillion. That sum is about three times the size of the entire US economy. And, it gets better. Once the baby boomers work their way through the system, Medicare spending will grow no faster than the payroll taxes, premiums and general revenue transfers that pay for that spending.
So what does this mean for senior citizens who rely on Medicare? No one knows for sure. But it almost certainly means they will get less health care.
Last August, the Office of the Medicare Actuary predicted that within nine years Medicare will be paying doctors less than what Medicaid pays. Think about that. In most places around the country Medicaid patients have extreme difficulty finding doctors who will see them. As a result, they end up seeking care at community health centers and in the emergency rooms of safety net hospitals. In a few more years seniors will be in that same position -- with this difference. From a financial point of view, the seniors will be perceived as less desirable customers than welfare mothers. Also, by that point one in seven hospitals will have to leave the Medicare system.
As Medicare Chief Actuary Richard Foster (page 282) said in the 2010 Medicare Trustees' report, "Well before that point, Congress would have to intervene to prevent the withdrawal of providers from the Medicare market and the severe problems with beneficiary access to care that would result."
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