Question by DAR: “since 1970 Medicare’s costs have risen 34% a year faster than the rest of health care”? Why would that be?
And what about this: ” Stanford University professor Scott Atlas points out that from 1998 to 2002 nearly twice as many new drugs were launched in the U.S. as in Europe. According the U.S. Pharmaceutical Industry Report, some 2,900 new drugs are now being researched here. America’s five top hospitals conduct more clinical trials than all the hospitals in any other developed country, according to Mr. Atlas. And a McKinsey Co. study reports that 40% of all medical travelers come to the United States for medical treatment.”

What would Obamacare do to that?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124588632634150501.html
subwm, I agree with that, but why would costs billed through medicare go up faster than costs billed anywhere else? Something about government management, maybe?
This doesn’t relate to the sheer medicare budget but to treatments under medicare as compared to treatments not paid for under medicare.
subwm, I dont think insurance is the answer either. I think the faceless third party payer is what causes higher costs.
Some of these answers are really interesting.

Best answer:

Answer by subwm4bush
The ever growing number of people reaching retirement age and the soaring costs of health care.

Spending on Medicare and Medicaid is projected to grow dramatically in coming decades. While the same demographic trends that affect Social Security also affect Medicare, rapidly rising medical prices appear a more important cause of projected spending increases. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has indicated that: “Future growth in spending per beneficiary for Medicare and Medicaid—the federal government’s major health care programs—will be the most important determinant of long-term trends in federal spending. Changing those programs in ways that reduce the growth of costs—which will be difficult, in part because of the complexity of health policy choices—is ultimately the nation’s central long-term challenge in setting federal fiscal policy.” Further, the CBO also projects that “total federal Medicare and Medicaid outlays will rise from 4 percent of GDP in 2007 to 12 percent in 2050 and 19 percent in 2082—which, as a share of the economy, is roughly equivalent to the total amount that the federal government spends today. The bulk of that projected increase in health care spending reflects higher costs per beneficiary rather than an increase in the number of beneficiaries associated with an aging population.”

Karl Rove cherry picked his “facts”, as usual. More detail is needed. Here are more details Karl would prefer not to discuss in depth.

Medicare’s success. While in many ways private insurers and Medicare track similarly in per enrollee growth rate trends over time, Medicare has proven to be more successful than private insurance have in controlling the growth rate of health care spending per enrollee. Moreover, recent survey research has found that Medicare beneficiaries are generally more satisfied with their health care than are privately insured people under age sixty-five. Specific details and statistics can be found at the following link.

http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/content/full/22/2/230

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!