• Total expenditures amounted to $336 billion in 2005 (up from $184 billion in 1995) and are projected to more than double to $817 billion by 2015.
• Spending per beneficiary was approximately $8,052 in 2005 (up from about $4,953 per beneficiary in 1995) and is projected to grow to $16,305 in 2015.
• The program covered nearly 43 million people in 2005 (35.8 million seniors and 6.7 million disabled persons), up from about 38 million in 1995. Enrollment is projected to grow to more than 53 million by 2015.
• The percentage of beneficiaries enrolled in managed-care plans was 13 percent in 2005 (up from 10.3 percent in 1996) and is projected to expand to 31.7 percent in 2015. This increase would be a result of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA), which gives higher payments to managed-care plans.
• The Medicare Hospital Insurance Trust Fund (Part A) is projected to be exhausted by 2018, two years sooner than last year‚s forecast.

The nonpartisan Concord Coalition stated that "Medicare's finances are in even deeper disarray than Social Security. According to the Medicare Trustees report, the hospital trust fund that finances Part A expenditures is already running cash deficits and will require ever-increasing infusions of general tax revenues to stay afloat. By 2020 Medicare will require general revenue contributions equal to 25% of individual income taxes in addition to premiums and payroll taxes dedicated to Medicare." Additionally, Richard Foster, the chief actuary of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, notes in the Trustees report that the Medicare Part B [doctor-payment program] projections are unreasonable. For them to be reasonable, he writes, physician fees would have to be reduced 37 percent over the next nine years, "an implausible result." The Trustees report concludes that total Medicare spending is expected to increase faster than either workers‚ earnings or the economy overall. Thus, this issue needs to be resolved soon: Sources:

• 2006 Annual Report of the Boards of Trustees of the Federal Hospital Insurance and Federal Supplementary Medical Insurance Trust Funds, May 1, 2006: http://www.treasury.gov/offices/economic-policy/reports/medicare.pdf
• "Concord Coalition Warns Tough Choices Must Be Made on Entitlement Program," Concord Coalition press release, May 1, 2006: http://www.concordcoalition.org/press/2006/060501release-trusteesreport.htm