One of the benefits of ObamaCare was supposed to be a set of reforms that would help contain the exploding growth of Medicare. [This week] four months after it was originally scheduled to be released, the Medicare trustees issued their annual report on the program’s fiscal health.

Sure enough, ObamaCare supporters were largely pleased with its findings. They applauded the claim that the long-run shortfall in Medicare’s finances had moderated to $30.8 trillion from just over $38 trillion in last year’s trustees’ report. But the trustees’ conclusions were completely undermined by an unprecedented appendix from Medicare Chief Actuary Richard Foster, who called the projections by the trustees “unreasonable” and “implausible.”

“The projections shown in the report do not represent the ‘best estimate’ of actual future Medicare expenditures,” he wrote. That’s because, contrary to all experience, the trustees had counted on Medicare physician fees being reduced by 30% over the next three years. Even if Congress were actually to impose such cuts, Mr. Foster says there is no way such reductions could be absorbed without many hospitals being badly harmed and possibly dropping out of Medicare completely. His best estimate is that the number of medical facilities that would become unprofitable due to ObamaCare will reach 25% by 2030 and 40% by 2050. That could severely limit access by patients to medical facilities.

Bottom line: Medicare remains a ticking time bomb ready to explode inside America’s economy.