Medicare spending per person is rising more slowly than spending in the private health sector, and the 2010 health care law should help keep cost acceleration down, The Washington Post reported on Friday. The rise in Medicare costs should stay well below targets set by Congress, the newspaper said.
“Medicare is not out of control,” Robert Berenson, vice chairman of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, told The Post. “This bloated and inefficient program is not bloated and inefficient.”
Obama administration officials note that Medicare controls costs better than private-sector insurance and say that cutting costs further in Medicare is not the way to balance the federal budget. The real threat is the coming avalanche of 65-year-olds, thanks to the baby boom generation.
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