12/31/07 CBO Forecasts Rising Healthcare Costs

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The growing cost of paying medical bills for the old and poor is the “central fiscal challenge facing the United States”, according to Peter Orszag, director of the nonpartisan congressional budget office. The CBO, which provides budget analyses for Congress, estimates that federal spending on Medicare, which provides government-funded medical aid for pensioners, and Medicaid, the programme for the poor, is set to soar. In addition to healthcare costs, the rise in cost of social security payments from just over 4 per cent of GDP today to 6 per cent by 2030 will also squeeze federal government’s budgets.

For more information:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f4312d0c-b49f-11dc-990a-0000779fd2ac.html