Medicare spending will soar in the years ahead as the number of seniors grows, but its per-capita growth is slower than private health insurance - and it is getting better. “We may be reaching the point now where Medicare healthcare expenses are growing no more quickly than growth of the economy overall,” said John Rother, chief executive officer of the National Coalition on Health Care (NCHC). “That’s important, but it might as well be a state secret as far as the public and Congress goes.”

The average annual per-capita spending growth rate through 2019 is projected at 3.1 percent for Medicare, compared with 4.9 percent for private insurance plans, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. The 3.1 percent projection even includes higher payments to doctors as part of a long-term solution to the long-running problem of the sustainable growth rate (SGR) used under current law to control Medicare spending on physician services.http://finance.yahoo.com

I think the doctors will stay in business.