[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 99 (Wednesday, July 22, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1387]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


 SAVING MEDICARE FOR BABY-BOOMERS IS NOT HOPELESS--DEDICATING THE NEXT 
DECADE OF FEDERAL SURPLUSES FOR MEDICARE WOULD KEEP HOSPITAL TRUST FUND 
                SOLVENT PAST 2030 WITH NO OTHER CHANGES

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. JIM McDERMOTT

                             of washington

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, July 22, 1998

  Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, in January, when the Congressional Budget 
Office (CBO) first estimated that the budget surpluses for the next 
decade might total $650 billion, many of us asked the Medicare Actuary 
how long that amount of money--if dedicated to the Medicare Hospital 
Trust Fund--would keep the Trust Fund solvent. The answer was 2020.
  CBO is now estimating that the next decade's surplus will be almost 
$1 trillion higher. I again asked the Office of the Chief Actuary how 
long that amount--if saved for Medicare and not given away on tax 
cuts--would fund the Hospital Trust Fund. The answer is past 2030. \1\
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     \1\ I asked the Office of the Chief Actuary what an 
     additional trillion dollars in budget surpluses would save. 
     They replied that $1.65 trillion dedicated for Part A would 
     save the Trust Fund to 2033. The CBO's latest estimate of 
     surplus between 1998 and 2008 is $1.548 trillion. Surpluses 
     are expected for another year or two after 2008 before the 
     Baby Boomers start retiring.
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  The year 2030 is as far as the National Bipartisan Commission on the 
Future of Medicare seeks or dares to plan for the future of Medicare. 
The year 2030 is well into the retirement of the Baby Boom generation 
and is a point at which the percentage of retirees in our society 
stabilizes.
  Without making any other changes, without any restructuring of the 
program, without any more provider cuts, without shifting costs to 
beneficiaries, without raising taxes, we can keep Medicare Part A 
solvent just by not giving away today's temporary surpluses.
  This does not mean to suggest that the Commission should not 
recommend any changes to the medicare program that makes the program 
work better for beneficiaries or that ensures greater cost 
predictability and containment. By making prudent savings on the 
provider side and saving the surpluses, we could actually improve 
Medicare and its package of benefits, or we could use some of these 
resources to also extend the life of the Social Security. The important 
point is that by just not dribbling away our present surpluses, we can 
make our future Social Security and Medicare problems much more 
solvable.
  As Congress debates possible ways in which to spend today's budget 
surpluses, it is important that the Commission recognizes and 
publicizes this very important message: Saving today's budget surpluses 
will make it infinitely easier to solve the coming Medicare crisis 
caused by the retirement of baby-boomers. There is, in fact, no crisis 
if we saved today's temporary surpluses to solve the future's certain 
Medicare deficits.

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