Medicare bankrupt in 2017, two years ahead of forecast

The US Medicare program will run out of money by 2017, according to the latest assessment of its trustees, two years earlier than previously  imagined. Reduced revenues and increased demand for the scheme, which  provides health care to elderly people, mean that Medicare and the  Social Security fund, which provides the state pension, are both running  greater deficits than expected.

The news prompted calls by Democrats for accelerated health care reform,  which supporters claim will reduce government spending as the US  population becomes healthier and becomes less reliant on expensive  emergency care (Marketletters passim).

Tim Geithner, the Treasury Secretary, said: "the longer we wait to  address the longer-term solvency of Medicare and Social Security the  sooner those challenges will be upon us and the harder the options will  be."