Martin Crutsinger
Associated Press
4/5/2010
The Obama administration is delaying release of the annual report on the financial health of Social Security and Medicare so that the new report can reflect the impact of the recently passed health care overhaul.
An administration official told The Associated Press that this year’s trustees report will be delayed until June 30, three months later than it usually comes out.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity before the formal announcement, said that the delay will allow the government to determine the impact of the massive overhaul of health care that President Barack Obama just signed into law.
In January, Richard Fisher, the chief actuary for Medicare, estimated that the Senate bill which passed on Christmas eve would extend the life of the Medicare hospital trust fund by 10 years. The legislation that finally passed Congress was the Senate bill but with revisions approved to win House support.
The administration official said that passage last month of the health care overhaul legislation had made the trustees report, which usually comes out around April 1, obsolete. This official said the decision was made to incorporate all of the changes made by the legislation to better reflect reality now that Congress has passed health care overhaul.
The article continues at AP.
