Trending News Today: Medicare Funding to Run Out 3 Years Earlier Than Projected

A new report predicts that Medicare’s hospital trust fund will run out of money in 2026, 3 years earlier than previously projected, Politico reported. According to the article, Medicare’s worsening financial condition is due to reduced revenue from payroll and Social Security taxes, and higher payments than expected to hospitals and private Medicare plans. The programs’ trustees also said that Social Security faces depletion in 2034, the article reported.

On Tuesday, the FDA outlined a framework for targeting websites illegally marketing opioids on the internet, STAT reported. According the article, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, MD, announced that the agency has sent formal warning to 9 online operators running a combined 53 websites for having engaged in illegal marketing and sales of highly controlled opioid painkillers. Many of the websites included in the FDA’s press release were no longer active as of Tuesday afternoon, although others appeared to continue to remain operational, the article reported.

The White House walked back a proposal to claw back $252 million in unspent funding from the 2015 Ebola outbreak, The Hill reported. According to the article, the proposal was part of a broader package the Trump administration sent to Congress last month aimed at rescinding $15 billion in unspent funding Congress appropriated years ago. However, health groups argued that the money should remain untouched in case of another Ebola outbreak, the article reported.