Options for Increasing Medicare Revenues

Medicare faces serious short-term and long-term financial pressures. This report examines the revenue and distributional effects of options to increase revenues for Medicare and discusses their relative pros and cons. We use the Tax Policy Center microsimulation model to estimate the effect of each option on revenues over ten years and on the distribution of after-tax income in one year. The options include increasing Medicare tax rates, increasing individual income tax rates, broadening the tax base, increasing corporate income tax rates, and enacting a value-added tax.