Administration Officials Tout New Report On Status Of Medicare

The Democrats’ sweeping healthcare reform law will extend the life of the Medicare hospital insurance fund by 12 years, according to a new government report on the status of Medicare and Social Security.

According to U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, the nation’s Medicare trust fund should stay solvent until 2029. In addition, the healthcare overhaul, passed earlier this year, improves the long-term outlook for the Social Security trust fund, which analysts previously warned will be depleted by 2037. In 2010, Social Security expenditures will exceed receipts for the first time in more than 25 years.

While the short-term prognosis for the two big entitlements is slightly troublesome, Geithner said the Medicare figures are encouraging.

“These are very, very substantial improvements,” he said during a briefing on Thursday.

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius added that the “outlook for Medicare has improved greatly,” as a result of the new healthcare law.

Sebelius, however, said that Congress must work on finding a permanent solution to the way in which physicians that accept Medicare are reimbursed by the federal government. Congress recently extended the “doc-fix” as it is known, but officials from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) have concluded that continued temporary fixes will in the long run negate some of the savings produced by the Affordable Care Act.