I wasn't actually talking about Medicare at all, I guess you need to read up on Wyden's health care proposals since he has been one of the few Senators steadily working on health care reform over the last 10 years.
As for Medicare, well, which numbers are you talking about? Here is this years annual Trustees Report Summary, which covers Social Security and Medicare: http://ssaonline.us/OACT/TRSUM/index.html Medicare has two parts the Hospital Insurance trust fund and the Supplemental Medical Insurance trust fund (covering Part B and Part D). The Hospital Insurance trust fun ran an operational deficit of 4.7 billion for 2008 and has assets of 321 billion. The SMI trust fun had an operational profit of 17 billion and total assets of 60 billion. So, short term, Medicare isn't running a deficit at all for its combined programs, it is actually in the black by some 13 billion. However, everyone agrees that outlays will outpace income in the coming years and operational deficits will become the norm. That isn't necessarily a bad thing for awhile since this is a trust fund. However it does become a bad thing if it goes on too long and no new revenues come into place. So yeah, if the 198 billion over 10 years were related to Medicare (which it isn't) it would be substantial. I'm not sure where your 0.005% figure is coming from. 200 billion being 0.005% of the medicare deficit would imply a deficit of 4 quadrillion dollars which, if I recall, is more than the GDP of planet Earth. Medicare has some serious financial problems laying ahead. I have no idea what the hell you are talking about however. Judah On Mon, Oct 5, 2009 at 4:40 PM, Gruss Gott <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Judah wrote: >> entire amendment. Outside groups scored it as saving 198 Billion over >> 10 years (which I think is rather optimistic) while the CBO doesn't > > $200 billion over 10 years? > > Isn't that like .005% of today's medicare deficit? and over 10 years? > > So your point is that Obama's plan will save .0005% per year not > including the new costs and won't change the cost trend? > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Want to reach the ColdFusion community with something they want? Let them know on the House of Fusion mailing lists Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:305165 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
