More than 57 million people currently receive Social Security benefits, and the federal government spends more on Social Security than it does on any other single program.
September 2013
CBO analyzes the ways two illustrative options for a premium support system for Medicare would affect federal spending and beneficiaries’ choices and payments.
CBO estimates that about 52 million people are currently covered by Medicare. In 2012, payroll taxes and beneficiaries’ premiums covered less than half of the $551 billion that the federal government spent on Medicare.
Medicaid is a joint federal-state program with an average enrollment of about 57 million people this year. In 2012, federal spending for Medicaid was $251 billion, of which $223 billion covered benefits for enrollees.
Although spending for health care in the United States has grown more slowly in recent years than it had previously, high and rising levels of such spending continue to pose a challenge for Medicare, Medicaid, and other government programs.
The deficit has fallen faster than we expected a few years ago, but the fundamental federal budgetary challenge remains.
On an annualized basis, the funding provided by the continuing resolution would exceed the statutory caps by $19 billion. Defense funding would exceed its cap by about $20 billion; nondefense funding would be about $1 billion below its cap.
The 2013 Long-Term Budget Outlook will be available on CBO’s website at 10:00 a.m. on the day of release.
The federal government ran a budget deficit of roughly $750 billion for the first 11 months of fiscal year 2013, CBO estimates, a reduction of more than $400 billion from the shortfall recorded for the same period last year.
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