Drivers of Growth in Federal Spending on Medicare, 2000 to 2024
Presentation
Presentation by Berna Demiralp, Tamara Hayford, and Julie Topoleski at a conference about the forces shaping America's fiscal future hosted by the University of Utah and the Brookings Institution.
CBO published this presentation on June 18, 2026, in advance of the scheduled presentation date of June 26, 2026.
This presentation describes CBO's projections of federal spending on Medicare, the sources of growth in such spending, and how much of that growth is attributable to changes in enrollment, prices, and real (price-adjusted) spending per beneficiary. Also discussed are the methods the agency uses to develop its projections and the sources of uncertainty about those projections.
