Health Care in a Time of Deficit Concern

March 23, 2023, Paper: "Medicare, Medicaid, and other government health care programs are once again up for debate. The run-up in federal debt during the COVID-19 pandemic has caused the federal government to reach its debt limit far earlier than was projected.1 For reasons both real and imagined,2 this is leading to a new round of deficit reduction discussions. Such discussions inevitably put health care in the crosshairs. This article provides some guidelines for making these discussions productive."