People who worry seriously about the federal budget deficit know that the main problem is health-care spending. Medicare and Medicaid now represent about one-quarter of the federal budget – more than Social Security and much more than the Pentagon - and are growing much faster than any other category of outlays.
But that doesn't mean Medicare and Medicaid are "broken,'' as some have suggested, according to a new report by researchers at the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan research group in Washington, D.C.
Medicare and Medicaid spending, per enrollee, has grown more slowly than spending in private health insurance plans, they note. For the coming decade, the growth in Medicare and Medicaid spending, per person, is only about half the growth of spending in private insurance, according to their calculations.
Their conclusion: The federal deficit cannot be tamed without tackling the larger problem of inflation in overall health-care costs. The full report can be seen at www.urban.org.
--DAVE HAGE
