title: Medicare up, up and ... a way for the industry to get more money may be difficult, experts says, since CMS finds Medicare spending rose 19% in '06.
abstract: Medicare spending skyrocketed nearly 19% in 2006, fueled by the Part D drug benefit and expanded Medicare Advantage enrollment. That's likely to put pressure on lawmakers to rein in spending, but one expert said it could have been worse. "We are fortunate that the actual cost of Part D has continued to come in under what our earlier projections were," says CMS Chief Actuary Richard Foster, left.
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: DoBias
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D014487:Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, U.S.; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D005102:Health Expenditures / Q000706:statistics & numerical data / Q000639:trends*; D006801:Humans; D006278:Medicare / Q000706:statistics & numerical data / Q000639:trends*; D020398:Medicare Part C; D054524:Medicare Part D; D014481:United States