Medicare (and health insurance) is a political football. The aging baby boomers are currently contributing more tax dollars to the Medicare Trust Fund than they ever will again in our lifetime. In 2011, the first baby boomers will become eligible for Medicare, and many of them will retire, no longer contributing to  the tax base. Instead, they will become consumers of the Medicare system and begin to tap into the very funds they contributed to Medicare for more than 40 years. Within a few decades, we will suffer massive deficits caused by Medicare, Medicaid (welfare—long term care) and Social Security. There is simply not a way to finance the Medicare system long term by raising taxes. Even if taxes were raised by 50 percent of the current rate, there still would not be enough money to fund the Medicare Part A Trust Fund for the long term. The current Part A trust is expected to pay more than it takes in by 2019, and some are estimating this will begin to occur as early as 2016.

Written by Mike Smith