SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO AM) - The Board of Trustees for Medicare says the trust fund is solvent to 2030.
Medicare turns 50 today and Administrator for Medicare and Medicaid Jeff Hinson says the trust fund is in better shape now than five years ago.
Hinson says one of the factors is the slow down in the growth of health costs, which are the lowest year-to-year increases in the last four decades. He says there's also more money coming into the fund due to the tax on very high income people.
A new study reveals mortality rates among Medicare patients fell 16 percent from 1999 to 2013, or 300,000 fewer deaths.
Medicare is the federal insurance program for people age 65 and older.