Alexander: Congress Needs to Enact Reforms to Ensure Seniors Can Count on Medicare to Pay Their Hospital Bills

WASHINGTON, June 22 – Senate health committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said that today’s Medicare Trustees Report projecting that the program will become fiscally insolvent by 2028 – two years earlier than last year’s projection – is proof that Congress needs to “act now to make sure seniors can count on Medicare to pay their hospital bills.”

“Today’s report is yet another reminder that as millions of Americans are counting the days until they are eligible for Medicare, the program soon won’t be able to help seniors pay their hospital bills,” said Alexander. “This disappointing news is further proof that the President and Congress should be focused on reforms like the ones included in the Fiscal Sustainability Act – which I introduced with Senator Corker last congress – to help rescue seniors facing a bankrupt Medicare program so seniors can count on Medicare to pay their hospital bills.”

Background:

The Medicare Trustees today said that by 2028, the program will be insolvent and, therefore, won’t contain enough money to pay seniors’ hospital bills.

In 2013, Alexander and Senator Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) introduced the Fiscal Sustainability Act to help ensure the solvency of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security by reducing the growth of mandatory spending in entitlement programs.

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