“The largest change in the Social Security and Medicare trustees’ reports during the Obama administration was the sharp improvement in the projections of Medicare’s finances. In the 2008 Trustees report, the last one produced during the George W. Bush administration, the Medicare program was projected to have a cumulative deficit over its 75-year planning period equal to 3.54 percent of covered payroll. This shortfall was sharply reduced during the Obama years, partly due to changes put in place by the Affordable Care Act, and partly due to a more general slowing in the rate of growth of health care costs. As a result, the projected shortfall in the program in 2016 was just 0.73 percent of payroll, a reduction of almost 80 percent.” More …