Mar 1 2012
CQ HealthBeat: Medicare Actuary Says Premium Support, Current Cost-Cutting, Won't Cure Medicare
Medicare's actuary warned Tuesday that controlling cost growth is the primary challenge to the entitlement program's financial stability, but that neither the premium support system sought by Republicans nor cost-cutting measures pushed by the administration provide all the answers. Richard S. Foster, chief actuary for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, testified alongside Social Security Actuary Stephen C. Goss during a House Budget Committee hearing on strengthening the finances of the two entitlement programs (Ethridge, 2/28).
 This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
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Without Medicare Part B’s shield, patient’s family owes $81,000 for a single air-ambulance flight