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Medicare Drug Program News
Medicare Drug Benefit 'Financially Irresponsible'
says U.S. Comptroller
Boomers retiring en masse will create a 'tsunami of
spending'
March 7, 2007 - The Medicare prescription drug
benefit is "financially irresponsible," U.S. Comptroller General David
Walker, head of the
Government Accountability Office,
said in a segment on CBS' "60 Minutes" this weekend,
Reuters
reports.
Walker called the drug benefit "probably the most
fiscally irresponsible piece of legislation since the 1960s ... because
we promise way more than we can afford to keep."
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Walker said that $8 trillion would need to be
invested immediately to cover the difference between what Medicare will
take in and what it will owe to beneficiaries over the next 75 years. He
cited the long-term financing problems Medicare will face because of the
impending retirement of the baby boomer generation.
Walker said that "when those boomers start retiring
en masse, then that will be a tsunami of spending that could swamp our
ship of state if we don't get serious" (Reuters
[1], 3/5). The Bush administration on Monday defended the Medicare drug
benefit.
Acting
CMS Administrator Leslie
Norwalk in a statement said the drug benefit was necessary to get
"Medicare's benefits in line with today's medical care."
Norwalk added, "Over 90% [of Medicare
beneficiaries] are covered and the program costs are much less than what
experts predicted when the bill was enacted in 2004" (Reuters
[2], 3/5).
>> The CBS' "60
Minutes" segment featuring Walker on Sunday also includes
comments from
Senate Budget Committee
Chair Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) (Kroft, "60 Minutes," CBS, 3/4). Video of the
segment is available
online. A transcript of
the segment also is available
online.
Walker Addresses Federation of American Hospitals
Walker also addressed the drug benefit on Monday at a meeting held by
the
Federation of American Hospitals,
the
AP/Houston
Chronicle reports. He said U.S. growth would not be
able to sustain Medicare and existing entitlement program spending, and
he warned that limitations for Medicaid might be necessary in the
future, perhaps by increasing the income eligibility levels.
All U.S. residents should have minimum levels of
care, but there must be more individual accountability for health care
expenses, according to Walker. He said, "If there's one thing that can
bankrupt America, it's health care."
He added, "Anybody who tells you we are going to
grow our way out of this, number one, hasn't studied economic history,
and number two, probably isn't very proficient at math" (AP/Houston
Chronicle, 3/5).
>> A webcast of Walker's address at the 2007 FAH Public Policy
Conference is available
online at
kaisernetwork.org.
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