Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady (R-TX) responded to the Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) federal spending report recently in Washington, D.C., calling the system “unsustainable” and urging alternative approaches to save Medicare’s Hospital Insurance Trust Fund.
“Despite all this spending, CBO has once again confirmed what we all know: Medicare as we know it is unsustainable and we need to act now to save it,” Brady said.
Noting that federal health program spending could feasibly double in the next decade, Brady called for the reform of the struggling health care pension system.
“In 10 short years, the Hospital Insurance Trust Fund that seniors rely upon will be exhausted,” Brady said. “And if we remain on this same path, America’s seniors are going to find it harder to access care and see their doctors.”
Brady pointed out that federal health care spending — comprising Medicare, Medicaid and Obamacare — exceeded all other entitlement programs for the first time in 2015.
“Obamacare didn’t solve the problem,” Brady said. “Instead, it raided over $700 billion from Medicare to pay for a new open-ended entitlement and, as predicted, its claims of slowing health care spending are exaggerated. True reforms are needed now to save Medicare for current and future generations.”
