A BILLION HERE, A BILLION THERE STILL DOESN’T ADD UP TO $65 TRILLION

“(B)y making Medicare more efficient, we’ll be able to ensure that more tax dollars go directly to caring for seniors instead of enriching insurance companies. This will not only help provide today’s seniors with the benefits they’ve been promised; it will also ensure the long-term health of Medicare for tomorrow’s seniors.” President Barack Obama’s op-ed in the 8/16/9 New York Times.

Let’s see, Medicare’s total unfunded liabilities are somewhere around $65 trillion. The amount the President would like to cut in Medicare Advantage payments to those unjustly enriched insurers is about $11 billion per year. At current long-term Treasury interest rates, the savings would handily cover the interest on the interest on the interest on the debt required to make Medicare whole.

It’s a start, I guess.

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