Medicare crisis looms in United States

WASHINGTON, March 17 (UPI) -- With healthcare costs increasing and an aging population drawing on healthcare services, Medicare will soon dwarf Social Security as a U.S. funding problem.

President Bush and Congress have made changes in Social Security the topic of the year but that debate could be at the expense of not watching the more immediate problem that Medicare is becoming. USA Today reported Thursday Medicare costs are projected to grow at nearly three times the rate of inflation for the next 10 years.

"Social Security is solvable," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told the newspaper, "I just don't know how to do Medicare."

Just like Social Security, many of the choices to keep Medicare solvent offer unpopular options -- such as cutting payments to doctors, increasing premiums or reducing coverage.

David Walker, head of the government Accountability Office, told USA Today: "We need to reconsider how we define, deliver and finance healthcare in this county, both in the public and private sectors. We need to weigh unlimited individual wants against specific societal needs."

More than 41 million people in the United States depend on Medicare for medical bill payments.