1997-2001

The Medicare Program is the second-largest social insurance program in the U.S. The Boards of Trustees for Medicare (also Boards) report annually to the Congress on the financial operations and actuarial status of the program. Through 2001, there are separate reports discussing the Hospital Insurance program (Medicare Part A) and the Supplementary Medical Insurance program (Medicare Part B). The Office of the Actuary in the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) prepared these reports under the direction of the Boards.

The Trustees Report is a detailed, lengthy document, containing a substantial amount of information on the past and estimated future financial operations of the Hospital Insurance and Supplementary Medical Insurance Trust Funds (see the links in the Downloads section below). We recommend that readers begin with the "Overview" section of the report. This section is fairly short, is written in "plain English," and summarizes all the key information concerning the expected financial outlook for Medicare. Substantial additional material is available in the later sections for those wishing to delve more deeply into the actuarial projections.