Sometimes I Feel Like a Piece of Bologna

Health Care Costs Threaten America

The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report quotes Comptroller General David Walker who testified at a Senate Budget Committee hearing this week. He said that increased health care costs and an aging population have placed the federal budget on an "imprudent and unsustainable path" and that "passage of time only serves to worsen this situation."

According to Walker, if "future promised and funded Social Security and Medicare benefits, veterans' health care, and a range of other commitments and contingencies" are met, the structural debt at the current rate of growth and spending will total $53 trillion.

He said, "If there is one thing that could bankrupt America, it's rising health care costs." Walker added that the next president and Congress will have about five years to address the issue before large tax increases and reductions in benefits are required.

If we can’t afford what we already provide, how in the world will we afford a costly universal health care plan! How long will we try to be all things to all people—and risk being nothing to anyone?

Labels: budget cuts, health care costs, tax increases