A nugget of good Medicare news

The Medicare trustees stuck with the fiscal predictions they made last year: The Medicare trust fund will be able to cover its bills through 2024. That stability doesn't owe itself to Washington or any policy that Congress passed. Instead, once you dig into the numbers, the most plausible explanation is a pretty encouraging one: Our healthcare system is getting better at delivering the same medicine more efficiently. One key indicator on that front is the federal government's spending on Medicare hospital visits last year, which was 2.3 percent less than expected, according to figures provided by senior administration officials.