Could Medicare bailout be worse than financial bailout?

William McKenzie at the Dallas Morning News thinks the current financial crisis will be a walk in the park compared to the next looming disaster - the downfall of Medicare. He believes many people are overlooking the oncoming bankruptcy of Medicare. However Michael Leavitt, the Secretary of Human and Health Services, is someone who is currently recognizing the problem.

The system currently faces two problems:

•There will be too few workers to pay for the benefits Medicare has promised today's workers. Right now, there are about four workers for every Medicare beneficiary. In 20 years, that ratio falls to about 2.5.

•Second, benefit costs will explode in inverse proportion to that dwindling work force. Mr. Leavitt projects that Medicare will rise from about 13 percent of federal spending today to about 23 percent in 20 years.

Do you agree or disagree with Mr. McKenzie? Is Medicare going to fall apart? What can be done to prevent this from happening?