At a House Ways and Means Committee hearing today, two Medicare trustees, Charles Blahous and Robert Reischauer, testified about necessary cuts to Medicare’s Hospital Insurance program (commonly known as Medicare Part A) once the trust fund runs out of money. According to the recently released Medicare trustees’ report, Part A is expected to exhaust the trust fund in 2024. Prompted by Peter Roskam (R-Ill.), Blahous and Reischauer testified that the expected real cuts to Medicare will be an average of 17 percent over the next 75 years.

“Medicare as we know it will end in 2024, absent some change in policy or some change in moving forward. That’s right, isn’t it?” asked Roskam. “Yes,” replied Blahous.