Medicare Malady #4: Who Really Pays for the Prescription DrugBenefit?

Report Health Care Reform

Medicare Malady #4: Who Really Pays for the Prescription DrugBenefit?

July 17, 2003 1 min read Download Report
THF
The Heritage Foundation
Not Medicare patients, that's for sure.

Medicare Trustee Tom Saving estimates that the cost of the additional obligations in the Senate Medicare bill, such as the prescription drug benefit, is equivalent to a two-thirds increase in the $3.8 trillion public debt.

Medicare Malady Cartoon
Illustration courtesy of Michael Ramirez and Copley News Service

That means the children and grandchildren of Medicare patients will pay for this open-ended entitlement in decades to come through higher taxes, lower salaries and lost dreams.

No generation, no matter how great, wants to leave that legacy behind.

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THF
The Heritage Foundation