back FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  CONTACT: March 24, 2004 Kate Dwyer: 202-226-7326 Ryan: Medicare Trustees’ Projections Show Reforms are Critical for Future Solvency WASHINGTON –  The Medicare trustees released their annual report regarding the future financial health of the Medicare program.  In this report, the trustees project that Medicare’s Hospital Insurance Trust Fund will be exhausted in 2019, seven years earlier than they projected in last year’s report (2026.)  For years, First District Congressman Paul Ryan has focused on the problem of Medicare’s approaching insolvency and fought for reforms to strengthen the program for the future – including certain reforms that were written into the Medicare prescription drug law enacted last year.  Regarding the Medicare trustees’ latest projections, Ryan made the following statement: “The trustees’ report shows why we needed to make reforms to the current system – not just add a drug benefit.  The new Medicare prescription drug law contains reforms that will give seniors the chance to choose a health care plan that works best for them – making plans compete for seniors’ business – and reforms that let people set aside money in health savings accounts.  These reforms are critical to the future financial health of Medicare, so we must make sure they are enacted properly and that we build on these improvements.” “While the bill we passed last year is far from perfect, it was much better than an alternative pushed by House Democrats that did not include important reforms and was expected to cost more than twice as much as the law we approved.” The Medicare trustees’ report attributes its new projection to several factors, including: higher spending and lower tax revenues in 2003 than projected (accounts for two years), associated assumption adjustments (1.5 years), improved data on the health status of beneficiaries in health plans (1 year), and model refinements for estimating certain hospital payments (0.5 years).  The new Medicare law accounts for two years of the seven-year difference in solvency dates, according to the trustees’ report.  It is important to note that the trustees’ projections do not take into account future potential savings from the Medicare law’s new preventative coverage or from its competitive reforms and health savings accounts.  back