The reality that health care reform will not solve America’s Medicare and Medicaid crisis is beginning to sink in, and the idea of creating a commission to face that challenge–and the Social Security crisis to boot–appears to be gaining traction, according to a story by Kaiser Health News.
The federal government is on track to his a $9 trillion deficit by 2019, according to KHN. Part of that comes from the recession and government’s response to the economic meltdown, but much of that amount reflects the growing cost of entitlement spending on Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
Christina D. Romer, chair of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, said the aging population is only part of the problem; the bigger culprit is health care costs that are rising more quickly than the gross domestic product.
“It is simply not a problem that can be kicked down the road indefinitely,” she said.