So what else gets trashed if Obamacare is repealed? Medicare's solvency, which is still going strong. The 2017 Social Security and Medicare trustees' report for 2017 says that the Medicare Trust Fund has gained another year of solvency, already extended substantially by Obamacare. Last year, they reported the fund would be depleted by 2028, and this year they extend that to 2029.
Dean Baker, Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, points out that this is thanks to the policies of the Obama administration.
"The largest change in the Social Security and Medicare trustees’ reports during the Obama administration was the sharp improvement in the projections of Medicare’s finances. In the 2008 Trustees report, the last one produced during the George W. Bush administration, the Medicare program was projected to have a cumulative deficit over its 75-year planning period equal to 3.54 percent of covered payroll.
"This shortfall was sharply reduced during the Obama years, partly due to changes put in place by the Affordable Care Act, and partly due to a more general slowing in the rate of growth of health care costs. As a result, the projected shortfall in the program in 2016 was just 0.73 percent of payroll, a reduction of almost 80 percent.
"At the time, some critics of the Obama administration questioned the validity of this projection and accused the Trustees, four out of six of whom are political appointees of the president, of manipulating the numbers for political purposes. These critics claimed that Obama’s trustees were deliberately understating the financial problems facing Medicare over its planning horizon.
"For this reason, the fact that the 2017 Trustees report largely confirms the drop in the shortfall projected by the Obama trustees is very important. In fact, the 2017 report shows an even better picture for Medicare, with a projected shortfall of just 0.64 percent of payroll over the 75-year planning period."
That's a good point, there—it's the Trump-appointed trustees who are confirming how well Medicare is doing under Obama polices. In fact, Medicare's trust fund gained 12 years of solvency, largely thanks to Obamacare. Which still isn't failing, by the way.
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