Jeb Bush wants to 'phase out' Medicare

(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube)

In New Hampshire last night, Jeb Bush was at an event sponsored by one of the Koch brothers' political organizations, and he spoke about health care policy. Referring to Medicare, he said that while current beneficiaries should stay on the program, we should "figure out a way to phase out this program for others and move to a new system," because it will eventually collapse otherwise. Watch:

Second, the rate of increase in health care spending has slowed dramatically since the passage of ObamaCare. As Steve Benen notes, before that Medicare was predicted to run into funding difficulties by 2017. Now the date has been pushed back to 2030, and the projected level of Medicare spending in 2090 has been reduced from 13 percent of GDP to just 6 percent.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

In other words, Medicare is doing fine. But Bush shows that the idea that Medicare is out of control remains an accepted fact among Republican presidential hopefuls — expect more of the same as the campaign heats up.

Explore More

Ryan Cooper is a national correspondent at TheWeek.com. His work has appeared in the Washington Monthly, The New Republic, and the Washington Post.