House Health Bill Would Silence Trustee’s Medicare Bankruptcy Warnings

Brian Riedl / July 15, 2009

President Obama has repeatedly claimed that his health care reforms also represent entitlement reform.

Not surprisingly, the Congressional Budget Office shows this claim implausible. They have scored several health care proposals as costing more than $1 trillion in the first decade, and certainly more thereafter. Accordingly, lawmakers are considering substantially raising taxes (during a recession!) to fund their proposals. Of course, health care reforms that are intended to save money usually do not typically require painful tax increases to offset their cost. The reality is that health care reform will substantially worsen the alarming condition of the long-term budget outlook where the biggest problem is Medicare. (more…)