Medicare and reprehensible political spin from HHS … Medicare is “thriving?”

2013

I have come to a low regard, very low for our Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius. No member of this administration has taken such license with the facts or placed more distorted spin on an issue than she has with regard to health care reform. At least you can say she is the consummate team player … I guess, just not on your team.

Look at the following press release from HHS July 29. “On eve of Medicare anniversary, new information shows a thriving program”

Really?

According to Sebelius, “Medicare is much stronger as a result of the health care law,” “Spending has slowed to historic levels, as seniors are enjoying enhanced benefits and greater savings on drugs.” All this from a law passed in March 2010, a law that increases spending for the newly “enjoyed” benefits and has yet to fully implement and prove the effectiveness of scores of trial programs. All this from a program where it’s financial projections still must assume huge cuts in physician fees, cuts that have yet to happen and never will.

Perhaps we should provide the Secretary with a reality check from another document she signed.

From the 2013 Medicare Trustees report [Kathleen Sebelius is one of the Trustees]

The estimated depletion date for the HI trust fund is 2026, 2 years later than was shown in last year’s report. As in past years, the Trustees have determined that the fund is not adequately financed over the next 10 years. HI taxable earnings in 2012 were slightly lower than last year’s estimate. The projected rate of growth in these earnings is lower in 2013 and 2014 but then exceeds last year’s growth assumptions after 2014. HI expenditures in 2012 were slightly lower than the previous estimate, but after 2014, the projected level grows more rapidly than shown in last year’s report because of assumed higher payment updates.

HI expenditures have exceeded income annually since 2008, and projected amounts continue doing so through 2014. The Trustees then project slight surpluses in 2015 thorough 2020 with a return to deficits thereafter until the fund becomes depleted in 2026. In 2012, $23.8 billion in trust fund assets were redeemed to cover the shortfall of income relative to expenditures. The Treasury also paid from the general fund $10.8 billion in interest to the HI trust fund in 2012. The assets were $244.2 billion at the beginning of 2012, representing about 92 percent of expenditures during the year, which is below the Trustees’ minimum recommended level of 100 percent.

By the way Secretary Sebelius, here is a non-spin definition of thriving.