MEDICAL PRIVACY Medicare Slipping Faster Into Insolvency   Health care costs for Medicare are rising faster than expected, says the federal Technical Review Panel of the Medicare Trustees Report. Whereas the April 2000 Medicare Trustees report stated that Medicare was safe until 2025, the panel cut that prediction by four years, to 2021.   According to The New York Times (11/30/00), the higher estimates imply Medicare costs will be 60 percent higher by 2075, with the annual cost of Medicare, now $218 billion, expected to double by 2010. Importantly, the Medicare Trustee's highly publicized insolvency prediction listing the year 2025 was only the "intermediate" assumption. Their "high cost" assumption was 2012. In other words, they predicted that Medicare could be bankrupt in a mere eleven years if costs escalated.   The high cost estimate may prove more accurate. In less than 8 months, Medicare solvency lost four years of life. Congress should move to free citizens now to prepare and save for their future health care expenses.   © Citizens' Council on Health Care Insider Report, Vol 2-4, Nov/Dec 2000 Citizens' Council on Health Care 1954 University Avenue West, Suite 8, St. Paul, MN 55104 Phone: 651.646.8935 / Fax: 651.646.0100, e-mail