Rep. Schwartz urges supercommittee to adopt her Medicare "doc fix" - TheHill.com, Julian PecquetRep. Allyson Schwartz (D-Pa.) on Wednesday sent the deficit-cutting supercommittee a detailed proposal to overhaul Medicare's unworkable physician payment system.
Slow Recovery Worsens Financial State of Medicare–Robert Pear, NY Times, 5/13/2011"The financial outlook for Medicare deteriorated in the last year because of the sluggish economic recovery, and the program's hospital insurance trust fund will be exhausted in 2024, five years earlier than projected last year, the government said Friday."
2011 Medicare Trustee Report–The major findings of the 2011 report under the intermediate set of assumptions are summarized within this document. Each of these findings is described in more detail in the "Overview" and "Actuarial Analysis" sections.
2010 Medicare Trustee Report–The major findings of the 2010 report under the intermediate set of assumptions are summarized within this document. Each of these findings is described in more detail in the "Overview" and "Actuarial Analysis" sections.
Alternate 2010 Medicare Projection by Richard S. Foster, Chief Actuary, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services–For several important reason, "the financial projections shown in this (the 2010 Medicare Trustee Report) report for Medicare do not represent a reasonable expectation for actual program operations in either the short range (as a result of the unsustainable reductions in physician payment rates) or the long range (because of the strong likelihood that the statutory reductions in price updates for most categories of Medicare provider services will not be viable). I encourage readers to review the "illustrative alternative" projections that are based on more sustainable assumptions for physician and other Medicare price updates.
Obama Urges Congress to Avert Medicare Pay Cuts–President Obama called Saturday for Congress to avert a planned 21 percent pay cut for doctors who see Medicare patients, saying the move was necessary to ensure the health of older Americans.
Status of the Social Security and Medicare Programs–The Board of Trustees for Social Security and Medicare gives its 2009 Annual Report.