CBO's Budget Forecast And The Silver Tsunami

This week, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a projection that shows Medicare enrollment will grow by more than 30 percent in the next decade alone, and the number of seniors will steadily grow from 55 million today to more than 80 million by 2036.  This is often referred to as the Silver Tsunami.  The challenge of responding to the growth of Medicare is going to drive policy in health care for the next decade.

Regardless of who is President or what party controls Congress, Medicare's demographic surge will force policy makers to find ways to reduce health care spending to save other spending priorities from being crowded out.  CBO projects the national debt to increase by $9.4 trillion to $30 trillion by 2026.  Spending on federal health programs now exceeds spending on Social Security.  With interest on the national debt a growing and untouchable line in the budget, the next Administration and Congress will need to reduce health care costs if they want