Broker's Customers Want Others to Pay for Medicare Fix

But the answers to the question about proposals for fixing Medicare’s finances seem to be consistent with another question eHealth asked about weighing sacrifices for future generations.

About 59% of the participants said they were unwilling to accept changes to their benefits or costs to keep Medicare sustainable for future enrollees. Only 12% were willing to accept changes in benefits or costs to promote program sustainability. Notably, respondents with a yearly income greater than $100,000 expressed more willingness to accept change — 22%, compared with just 13% of those with yearly incomes below $25,000.

Medicare

Medicare reported an $85 billion operating gain on $865 billion in revenue for fiscal year 2022, which ended Sept. 30, 2022, but its trustees expect a large trust fund that supplements current-year Medicare Part A hospitalization program payroll tax revenue to run dry in 2031.

After that year, if Congress makes no effort to change program funding, the program will have enough payroll tax revenue to pay about 89% of the promised benefits, according to the trustees.

The headquarters of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in Woodlawn, Maryland. Credit: Jay Mallin/Bloomberg