Health Care Reform Isn’t Entitlement Reform (Reason.com)

A year before the Affordable Care Act passed, then-White House budget director Peter Orszag said, “…health reform is entitlement reform.” Medicare, the nation’s biggest health care entitlement could be insolvent as soon as 2016, according to the program’s trustees. This is because reforms that were supposed to remake the program aren’t working as well as hoped. Savings for the program were based in large part on targeted payment cuts to health industry players and providers. The cuts are facing heavy opposition, and the White House has already backed down at least once. Current projections indicate the program’s trust will be empty by 2024, according to the program’s trustees.