Medicare Drug Benefit to Cost $724 Billion

[hadrons]

WASHINGTON - President Bush (news - web sites) added Medicare to the government's fix-it list Wednesday after new figures showed the first full decade of the program's prescription benefit will cost taxpayers $724 billion.

"There's no question that there is an unfunded liability inherent in Medicare that Congress and the administration is going to have to deal with over time," Bush told reporters.

"Obviously I've chosen to deal with Social Security (news - web sites) first," he added. "Once we modernize and save Social Security for a young generation of Americans, then it'll be time to deal with the unfunded liabilities of Medicare."

The new figure for years 2006 through 2015 is much higher than the $534 billion cost calculated for years 2004 through 2013. That's because under the previous decade-long projection, the benefit didn't exist for two of the 10 years

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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=2&u=/ap/20050210/ap_on_he_me/medicare_costs

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

1. "new figures?"

Um...that was the "old" real figure.