I have been harping on medicare a lot lately but this report puts it much better than I have so far. This is the real issue about our deficit and debt going forward and virtually no one, especially politicians, are seriously talking about it. My own opinion is that we, or more specifically our politicians, are not going to do a damn thing about it until we hit the wall bad. The political will simply isn't there and more importantly the will of the citizens is not there. Everyone wants to cut the budget, just not the stuff THEY like which is generally stuff like medicare. I don't see any possible way that this ends well for anyone in the US.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323353204578127374039087636.html?mod=hp_opinion
And for the real bad news (yes, it gets worse)
Federal healthcare spending to date:
Federal healthcare spending going forward using only the historical rate of increase and NOT including the additional people, per-capita, that will be enrolled
Yes boys and girls, $2 trillion out of the Federal budget in 10 short years JUST for federal healthcare spending, $4 trillion in another 10 years and it just keeps getting more absurd from there. Anyone honestly think we afford that JUST for Federal healthcare spending to cover a relatively small portion of US citizens?
tl;dr: We be fucked.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323353204578127374039087636.html?mod=hp_opinion
$7 trillion in accrued "debt" from last year alone. Any private organization would be required by law to list these liabilities but its the .gov so...For the year ending Dec. 31, 2011, the annual accrued expense of Medicare and Social Security was $7 trillion. Nothing like that figure is used in calculating the deficit. In reality, the reported budget deficit is less than one-fifth of the more accurate figure.
And for the real bad news (yes, it gets worse)
I am going to have to check the .govs numbers but I would bet a weeks pay they don't include the historical inflation rate of the .govs healthcare cost. See below:For years, the government has gotten by without having to produce the kind of financial statements that are required of most significant for-profit and nonprofit enterprises. The U.S. Treasury "balance sheet" does list liabilities such as Treasury debt issued to the public, federal employee pensions, and post-retirement health benefits. But it does not include the unfunded liabilities of Medicare, Social Security and other outsized and very real obligations. As a result, fiscal policy discussions generally focus on current-year budget deficits, the accumulated national debt, and the relationships between these two items and gross domestic product. We most often hear about the alarming $15.96 trillion national debt (more than 100% of GDP), and the 2012 budget deficit of $1.1 trillion (6.97% of GDP). As dangerous as those numbers are, they do not begin to tell the story of the federal government's true liabilities.
The actual liabilities of the federal government—including Social Security, Medicare, and federal employees' future retirement benefits—already exceed $86.8 trillion, or 550% of GDP.
Federal healthcare spending to date:
Federal healthcare spending going forward using only the historical rate of increase and NOT including the additional people, per-capita, that will be enrolled
Yes boys and girls, $2 trillion out of the Federal budget in 10 short years JUST for federal healthcare spending, $4 trillion in another 10 years and it just keeps getting more absurd from there. Anyone honestly think we afford that JUST for Federal healthcare spending to cover a relatively small portion of US citizens?
tl;dr: We be fucked.
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