Robert E. Moffit, PhD
Senior Research Fellow
Grover M. Herman Center for the Federal Budget at the Heritage Foundation
214 Massachusetts Avenue NEWashington, D.C. 20002-4999
Robert E. Moffit is a Senior Research Fellow, Health and Welfare Policy, for the Grover M. Hermann Center for the Federal Budget at The Heritage Foundation. Moffit long has specialized in health care and entitlement programs, especially Medicare. He brings to the reform effort his government experience as a senior official of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) during the Reagan administration.
Topics
Appearances (1)
2026-07-24
The Medicare Time Bomb: Addressing a $60 Trillion Unfunded LiabilityIn the latest episode of the Health Policy Podcast, host Bryan Hyde discusses Medicare's significant unfunded liabilities with Robert E. Moffit, PhD, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation. Moffit highlights that Medicare's unfunded liabilities are estimated at $60 trillion, posing a substantial fiscal challenge for future generations. He emphasizes the need for bipartisan solutions to improve the efficiency of Medicare financing and reduce healthcare costs.
Notable quotes
“With Medicare and Medicaid together today, we are spending about $2 trillion on both of those programs.”
“The unfunded liabilities of the Medicare program... comes down to $60 trillion.”
“For Gen Z, the kids in their 20s, they're going to get hit by a fiscal freight train.”
“This issue stimulates profound fear among members of the House and Senate because it's big, it's complex.”
“We have a poisonous polarization in our country today that we did not have during the Reagan years.”
“There is so much waste in the system that we could cure, in my view, by injecting some very, very stiff doses of free market principles.”
