Opinion: Covid-19 is accelerating the Medicare trust fund’s dive toward insolvency
The Covid-19 pandemic has claimed another victim: Medicare’s trust fund. The Congressional Budget Office released a report Wednesday projecting that Medicare’s federal Hospital Insurance Trust Fund, which helps pay for Medicare beneficiaries’ hospital bills, will be insolvent by fiscal year 2024. That means there won’t be enough money in the trust fund to fully pay hospitals, doctors, and nursing homes for the care they provide to Medicare beneficiaries.
These projections describe a crisis for Medicare, a program that, together with Social Security, form the bedrock of our country’s retirement safety net and assure that millions of older adults can get the health care they need.
