Medicare Promise
U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen (D–MD) claims that President Lyndon B. Johnson and Congress created Medicare and Medicaid 60 years ago to fulfill “a promise” that Republicans have betrayed.
IN FACT, LBJ stated in 1964 that hospital insurance (i.e., Medicare) would cost everyone “no more than $1 a month during the employee’s working career,” a promise broken in at least four ways:
- Adjusted for inflation, $1 in 1964 equals $10 in 2025, but Medicare’s hospital insurance tax is now unlimited and costs workers 2.9% of their wages up $200,000/year and 3.8% thereafter. Workers who earn $1 million/year pay about $3,000/month for this tax.
- The Medicare hospital insurance tax currently funds only 34% of Medicare’s total expenses, while 46% is funded by general revenue taxes.
- Medicare pays hospitals an average of 18% below their costs of caring for Medicare patients, thus shifting these expenses to other patients.
- Medicare has amassed $53.9 trillion in unfunded obligations for all current participants in the program, including both taxpayers and beneficiaries. This obligation amounts to or an additional $201,932 from every U.S. resident aged 16 or older.
