Best Kept Secret In Washington DC: The Future Of Medicare – Forbes

The fact that Medicare has been put on a sound financially footing – for the first time in its history – has never appeared in any official government announcement. Ditto for the fact that the disabled and the elderly may bear a heavy cost along the way.

These facts have not been in the headlines of any major newspaper. They have not been addressed in any news article. To my knowledge they have never been discussed in any opinion editorial. Even more surprising, they are repeatedly ignored by scholars and in scholarly reports at think tanks around the country (other than my own).

Eerie as it may seem, the entire country has been acting as though these incredible public policy changes have never occurred.

Here is a third thing l bet you don’t know. Although Republicans have criticized the “Obama cuts in Medicare spending” as threatening access to care for the elderly, the GOP alternative essentially does exactly the same thing.

What no one bothered to discuss was the much bigger budget story: an enormous reduction in future Medicare spending and its impact on the health and financial well-being of the 54 million people in Medicare.

Here is a bit more detail.

Source: Best Kept Secret In Washington DC: The Future Of Medicare – Forbes