On Sep 14, 9:16*pm, Michael Coburn > wrote:
> Let us understand that Medicare "B" and "D" are the primary shortfalls
> but that the article is perpetrating a lie of sorts in insinuating that
> these were to be supported by the Medicare tax. *BOTH Medicare "B and "D"
> were passed as general revenue supported programs. *Those programs WERE
> NOT defined to be funded by the Medicare tax.
>
> http://health.howstuffworks.com/medicare4.htm
>
> In his lust to **** all over social insurance the author of this rag
> fails to distinguish this fact. *And as these programs were never
> intended to be supported by the Medicare Tax then there are no "unfunded"
> liabilities any more than defense is an "unfunded" liability. In essence,
> based on the actual LEGISLATION that created these programs,THERE IS NO
> GAP. *The projected income form Medicare taxes and premiums is $57.4T
> (his numbers), but there was never any intent for Medicare taxes to fund
> parts "B" and "D" in any way. He has wrapped up the Medicare tax and the
> paid in premiums in a toxic enchilada designed to be employed by
> Republican pig prancers to sew their seeds of fear and distrust of
> government. *I have no numbers on How much of his toxic enchilada is
> STOLEN Medicare taxes that are supposed to be placed in the Medicare
> trust fund specifically for Medicare "A", and how much is paid in
> premiums. But the article is nothing other than the continued assault by
> Republicans on social insurance systems and government in general.
>

Nice try, but this has nothing to do with part D.

"The Medicare actuaries then dryly note what would happen once the
trust funds for Social Security and Medicare's hospital insurance
program are depleted: "

"Medicare's hospital insurance program"

http://seniorjournal.com/NEWS/Medica...teesReport.htm




Here's this is from the report itself, the have it a little confused.


http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/TRSUM/index.html

"The projected 75-year actuarial deficit in the Hospital Insurance
(HI) Trust Fund is now 3.88 percent of taxable payroll, up from 3.54
percent projected in last year's report. The fund again fails our test
of short-range financial adequacy, as projected annual assets drop
below projected annual expenditures within 10 years—by 2012. The fund
also continues to fail our long range test of close actuarial balance
by a wide margin. The projected date of HI Trust Fund exhaustion is
2017, two years earlier than in last year's report, when dedicated
revenues would be sufficient to pay 81 percent of HI costs. Projected
HI dedicated revenues fall short of outlays by rapidly increasing
margins in all future years. The Medicare Report shows that the HI
Trust Fund could be brought into actuarial balance over the next 75
years by changes equivalent to an immediate 134 percent increase in
the payroll tax (from a rate of 2.9 percent to 6.78 percent), or an
immediate 53 percent reduction in program outlays, or some combination
of the two. Larger changes would be required to make the program
solvent beyond the 75-year horizon."