{"id":2615568,"date":"2026-06-18T09:56:40","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T13:56:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-bill-for-medicare-insolvency-is-coming-due-and-its-not-pretty\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T10:02:57","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T14:02:57","slug":"the-bill-for-medicare-insolvency-is-coming-due-and-its-not-pretty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-bill-for-medicare-insolvency-is-coming-due-and-its-not-pretty\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bill For Medicare Insolvency Is Coming Due, And It&#8217;s Not Pretty"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fthe-bill-for-medicare-insolvency-is-coming-due-and-its-not-pretty%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2615568&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The article critiques Congress&#8217;s ineffective handling of entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare, highlighting their worsening financial states. Despite recent efforts to combat fraud, meaningful issues remain unresolved, with <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >medicare declared functionally insolvent due<\/a> to trust fund accounting practices and increased retirement costs from the Baby Boomers. The trustees\u2019 report indicates that Social Security and Medicare negatively impact the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/treasury-secretary-janet-yellen-we-have-to-consider-rising-inflation-rates-when-doing-stimulus-package\/\" title=\"Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen: \u2018We Have To Consider\u2019 Rising Inflation Rates When Doing Stimulus Package\">federal deficit<\/a>, with no real assets backing their trust funds, which operate on a pay-as-you-go basis. Medicare&#8217;s insolvency has been accelerated by Obamacare&#8217;s accounting tricks, making the program financially unsustainable. The report also notes rising costs in Medicare Part D, partly due to policy changes from the Biden management that incentivize higher drug spending.the article emphasizes the urgent need for Congress to enact reforms to ensure the long-term viability of these entitlement programs, warning that continued inaction will worsen fiscal challenges.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Congress often appears to function via the mantra of \u201cone step forward, four steps back.\u201d Even when policymakers take action \u2014 as in recent <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2026\/06\/10\/dont-look-now-but-congress-is-actually-working-to-fight-fraudulent-spending\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">steps to fight fraud<\/a> in government programs \u2014 they continue to ignore bigger issues with entitlement spending.<\/p>\n<p>The annual release of the Medicare trustees\u2019 report illustrates the problem. This year\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cms.gov\/oact\/tr\/2026\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">report<\/a> showed that, by the end of last year at least, the administration\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/inspector-general-46-billion-in-covid-unemployment-subsidies-probably-went-to-fraudsters\/\" title=\"Inspector General:  Billion In \u2018Covid\u2019 Unemployment Subsidies Probably Went To Fraudsters\">anti-fraud efforts<\/a> had not delayed the program\u2019s (technical) insolvency date. Meanwhile, another year passed without lawmakers acting to fix a program that has been <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/06\/10\/fact-check-medicare-is-already-functionally-insolvent\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">functionally insolvent<\/a> for years.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Contributing to Deficits<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Other observers <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/opinion\/the-social-security-trust-fund-deception-a35042a4?mod=opinion_recentauth_pos_2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">noted<\/a> that the trustees\u2019 report release provides an opportunity to reinforce how Social Security and Medicare are exacerbating our nation\u2019s deficit problems. At a time when the federal government faces <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2026\/03\/12\/we-could-completely-get-rid-of-social-security-and-it-still-wouldnt-balance-the-u-s-budget\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">annual deficits<\/a> approaching $2 trillion, these programs will appreciably worsen the problems Washington faces in the coming decades.<\/p>\n<p>Despite talk of trust funds that cover Social Security and Medicare\u2019s costs, those trust funds contain no resources in the form of hard currency such as gold \u2014 just a series of paper IOUs from one part of the government (the Treasury) to another (the trust funds). Because the trust funds have no fixed assets, these programs effectively operate on a \u201cpay-as-you-go\u201d basis, with current workers paying for past retirees\u2019 benefits. And the retirement of the Baby Boomers means the number of the former will shrink, while the number of the latter continues to rise.<\/p>\n<p>To think of it another way: Social Security and Medicare accumulated sizable surpluses during the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, which Washington turned around and spent on things like the 1980s defense buildup, a series of tax cuts, the post-9\/11 conflicts, and much else. Now that the bill is coming due, the added costs associated with the Baby Boomers\u2019 retirement mean that Social Security and Medicare will add to our fiscal woes.<\/p>\n<p>According to the trustees\u2019 report, the Social Security and Medicare trust funds incurred a net of over $132 billion in losses in 2025 \u2014 losses that will only grow in future years. Moreover, these numbers understate the scale of our entitlement deficits.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Functional Insolvency<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>I have written previously that Medicare is <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/06\/10\/fact-check-medicare-is-already-functionally-insolvent\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">functionally insolvent<\/a> and has been for nearly a decade, all due to Obamacare and the vagaries of trust fund accounting. As part of the 2010 law, which raised taxes and lowered Medicare spending, Democrats <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ukaIZ7pmabo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">used those savings<\/a> <em>both<\/em> to 1) extend the life of the Medicare trust fund and 2) pay for Obamacare.<\/p>\n<p>But any rational person knows you can\u2019t spend the same money twice \u2014 at least not without ending up in jail. That\u2019s why Medicare is functionally insolvent and has been since roughly 2017. In 2009, before Obamacare passed, the Medicare <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cms.gov\/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems\/Statistics-Trends-and-Reports\/ReportsTrustFunds\/Downloads\/TR2009.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">trustees\u2019 report<\/a> pinned Medicare\u2019s insolvency date at 2017.<\/p>\n<p>By any honest accounting \u2014 one that sees Obamacare savings pay for Obamacare rather than spending the same money twice \u2014 Medicare\u2019s Hospital Insurance Trust Fund should have reached insolvency long ago. (While a separate trust fund covers outpatient physician and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/democrats-prepare-to-sell-biden-as-consequential-president-this-fall\/\" title=\"Democrats Prepare To Sell Biden As Consequential President This Fall\">prescription drug spending<\/a> for Medicare, those programs are funded with general revenue, meaning they cannot become insolvent on their own.) Likewise, the slight surpluses the Hospital Insurance Trust Fund ran from 2021-25 would have shown as major losses under more transparent accounting procedures that eschew Obamacare\u2019s double-counting scheme.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Effects of Biden Blowout<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Other bad news lurked elsewhere within the trustees\u2019 report. I <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/12\/10\/medicare-prescription-drugs-could-cost-500-billion-more-than-expected-over-the-next-decade\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">previously noted<\/a> in these pages how, last fall, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbo.gov\/publication\/61824\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">increased<\/a> the 10-year projections for the cost of the Part D <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/desantis-issues-drug-transparency-order-as-biden-administration-drags-its-feet\/\" title=\"DeSantis Issues Drug Transparency Order As Biden Administration Drags Its Feet\">prescription drug benefit<\/a> by half a trillion dollars. The trustees\u2019 report echoes that conclusion, with a chart showing how much projected spending on Part D has increased just in comparison to last year\u2019s report:<\/p>\n<figure><\/figure>\n<p>As with CBO, the actuaries who compile the trustees\u2019 report attributed the change to several developments: growth in the utilization of GLP-1 drugs and changes in demographics \u2014 namely, lower fertility rates \u2014 that result in lower GDP projections and therefore increase Part D spending as a percentage of GDP.<\/p>\n<p>But the report\u2019s reference to \u201chigher cost trends\u201d also provides a reference to the restructuring of the Part D benefit that the Biden administration and congressional Democrats undertook in the 2022 Inflation (Reduction) Act (IRA), which only came into full effect last year. CBO and the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission both <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/12\/10\/medicare-prescription-drugs-could-cost-500-billion-more-than-expected-over-the-next-decade\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">previously<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2026\/04\/08\/how-bidens-so-called-inflation-reduction-act-screwed-taxpayers-with-massive-medicare-bailouts\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">suggested<\/a> that the IRA restructuring, by giving seniors an incentive to consume additional \u201cfree\u201d (or lower-cost) drugs, has driven up Part D costs and government spending. Now the Medicare actuary\u2019s office has added its voice to support that theory via the trustees\u2019 report.<\/p>\n<p>This finding should provide additional evidence, as if lawmakers needed more, for Congress to act to make Medicare sustainable for the long term. Every day and every year that lawmakers do not act will only make the day of reckoning worse when it finally arrives.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<div>\n<p>      Chris Jacobs is founder and CEO of Juniper Research Group and author of the book &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/1645720020\">The Case Against Single Payer<\/a>.&#8221; He is on Twitter: <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/chrisjacobsHC\">@chrisjacobsHC<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Congress stalls on entitlement reforms despite ongoing issues<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":521,"featured_media":2615569,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Pill-Blisters-with-Dollars.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546,33651],"tags":[40168,51601,34630,14041,4159],"class_list":["post-2615568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist","category-the-western-journal","tag-budget-crisis","tag-government-funding-2","tag-healthcare-costs","tag-insolvency","tag-medicare"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Pill-Blisters-with-Dollars.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2615568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/521"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2615568"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2615568\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2615572,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2615568\/revisions\/2615572"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2615569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2615568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2615568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2615568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}