The $700 Billion Health Insurance Program Covering 50 Million American Seniors Will Slip Into the Red In 2028
Leslie K. Paige, Vice President, Policy & Communications, Citizens Against Government Waste
(Washington D.C. Thursday, March 16, 2017) – According to Medicare’s accountants, the $700 billion health insurance program covering 50 million American seniors will slip into the red in the year 2028, two years earlier than predicted last year. Beyond that date, the program will be dependent upon dwindling payroll deductions to fully fund it. Medicare loses more money to waste, fraud and abuse than any other government program, with the Medicare Fee-For-Service program losing $46 billion in 2014 alone.
The top 10 states for Medicare waste are:
- Texas
- California
- New Jersey
- Pennsylvania
- Florida
- New York
- Illinois
- Michigan
- Missouri
- Oklahoma
Medicare is also the biggest driver of our national debt, which has shot past $20 trillion in the last decade and shows no signs of abating. And the program has a high improper payment rate and is so vulnerable to fraud and abuse that the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) has kept it on its High Risk List since 1990.