Budget proposes $560 billion cut in Medicare

The Bush administration would cut roughly $560 billion from Medicare over the next decade in order to slow the program's projected annual growth rate from 7 percent to 5 percent, said Bush in a letter to Congress outlining his last budget plan. The budget would leave intact program subsidies to insurers worth an estimated $150 billion over the same period. Some experts are calling the budget, and their associated cuts, "disastrous" for the healthcare industry.