$89 Trillion: Now THAT’S a Problem!!Back to the Blog »
March 19th, 2010
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Like everyone else, I am really sick of healthcare reform. Fortunately, the real “end-game” is in sight and will likely be over one way or the other next week.
I’ve noticed that something really scary has happened for me during this year long debate: I think I really understand what a Trillion Dollars is!!
Seriously, I have heard the T-word thrown around for along time when the federal budget is being discussed or military expenditures, etc. But for most of my life, it was in one ear and out the other–I never really took the time to comprehend how much a trillion dollars really is. But with the bailouts and the Stimulus bill and healthcare reform bills all approaching the T-level, I think I really understand how big a number it really is.
Or how small it is, I should say.
Last night I was flipping through the Trustees Report on Medicare and Social Security (I know…get a life…it’s March Madness time!!!), which includes the dire prediction that the Medicare Hospital Insurance (Part A) Fund will be gone–gone-gone-in 8 years. In 2017, I will be 54 years old, still 11 years from being eligible and it will be gone. I have been paying in 2.9% of my income (1.45% as employee and 1.45% as employer) into Medicare for as long as I can remember, and there will be nothing left for me!!!
Even more scary is the fact that, according to the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA), the accumulated cost of the Medicare benefits that have been promised to me and a lot of other people will cost $89.3 trillion in todays dollars. Add in another $17.5 trillion in Social Security, and the combined Medicare/Social Security obligations are $107 trillion more than we have on hand.
Now that these figures are so unimaginable that most of us can’t fathom or process the impact. But consider that U.S. corporations have been required to account and report these post-employment obligations for nearly 20 years (FAS106), and state and local governments for the past 3 or 4 (GASB43/45). What makes private business and local government any different that the federal government?
What makes the federal government different is this: it’s the federal government!!
Washington is focused on spending nearly a trillion dollars in the very worthy attempt to cover an additional 30 million (we all agree it would be great to cover everyone…) , they are poised to not deliver on the promise to provide coverage to the 270 million of us who are expecting coverage when we are old(…but not at any cost!!!).
Worst of all, over $500 billion (half a trillion for you those of us who comprehend) of the $940 billion comes from cuts in MEdicare funding.. That’s right–cuts in funding for a program that will already be bankrupt in 8 years!!!
I just can’t understand what’s going on in these polls…do you???
Posted by Bill in Healthcare Reform
