Local Newspapers and Health Care Cost Projections

On February 26, 2008 the Minneapolis Star Tribune published an article on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid’s health care cost projections as the baby boomer generation ages. By 2017 health care costs are expected to reach $4 trillions dollars a year, with the annual rate of increase nearly tripling that of inflation at 6.7%. Bush has proposed cuts in Medicare and Medicaid by slowing yearly growth from seven to five percent, while Democrats propose cutting payments to the private insurers who oversee the care of some Medicare recipients.

While the article acknowledges that the country’s health care system is in need of reform, it continues the trend of traditional media’s objective coverage of the debate, neutrally giving equal time to both sides of the argument.