Medicare solvency still troubled, despite new health law

The annual trustees report on Medicare and Social Security found that the programs are "facing strains from an aging population and an economy that can't seem to get out of low gear," The Associated Press reports. "And despite assertions to the contrary by the Obama administration, the new health care law doesn't improve Medicare's solvency by much. … Demand for services is going up, and income from payroll taxes can't keep pace. Meanwhile, the government has used trust fund surpluses to pay for other needs, leaving Medicare and Social Security with a pile of IOUs. Interest in the trustees' report is running high this year because it's expected to delve into the effects of the new federal health care law on Medicare." The trustees include Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, but "the number-crunching and analysis are done by nonpartisan professionals at the Office of the Actuary, an obscure economic unit in the Health and Human Services Department that has a reputation for independence. To the consternation of White House officials, recent reports from that office have raised questions about the heath care law's impact on Medicare" (Alonso-Zaldivar and Crutsinger, 8/5).

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This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.