(Arlington, Va. – July 31, 2026) – Fox News published an op-ed today by Concord Action and Concord Coalition Executive Director Dr. Carolyn Bourdeaux marking Medicare’s 61st anniversary and examining nine years of unanswered warnings about the program’s finances.
In “Medicare at 61: Nine Years of Warnings and No Answer,” Bourdeaux writes:
“None of this is a surprise to anyone in Washington. The Medicare trustees have formally notified Congress and the President, in writing, nine years running, and Congress and the President have done nothing.
“In 2003, Congress built itself an alarm system to warn when Medicare spending and revenues were getting dangerously out of balance. If the trustees ever project that general revenues, not payroll taxes, not premiums, but the government’s ordinary tax dollars, will have to cover more than 45 percent of Medicare’s costs within seven years, they are required to say so formally. Two such determinations in a row trigger a ‘Medicare funding warning.’ And the warning is not advisory. By statute, the President must send Congress remedial legislation within 15 days of his next budget, and Congress must take it up on an expedited basis.
“The trustees issued that warning again in June. And this year the 45 percent line is not crossed somewhere out in the seven-year window. It is crossed now, in fiscal 2026, the first year of the projection.
“Exactly one president has ever answered the letter. That was in 2008. No legislation responding to any of these warnings has ever been enacted.”
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