| | Medicare could go bust by 2019 - Mar. 23, 2004 |
 | | Healthcare fund for elderly could be insolvent 7 years earlier than expected. |
 | | WASHINGTON (CNNfn) - The trust fund that supports hospital benefits for the nation's elderly, under the federal Medicare program, will become insolvent in 2019, seven years earlier than had been predicted, according to the annual report of trustees of the Social Security and Medicare programs. |
 | | Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson cited decreased revenues and increased health care costs as the primary drivers of the changed forecast in this year's report on the financial health of Medicare and Social Security, the nation's biggest entitlement programs. |
| money.cnn.com /2004/03/23/news/economy/medicare?cnn=yes (611 words) |