More importantly, the same skyrocketing healthcare costs that have made private insurance so unaffordable have also long left Medicare hemorrhaging money, just not as badly as people with only private insurance. The whole US healthcare system is in trouble, as you surely know, but Medicare is in (comparatively) better shape. Medicare can guarantee you payment of care for 50 million patients who have extensive, regular and long term medical needs, which gives it great negotiating power: Most doctors and hospitals would rather have a $100 profit off 100 patients than a $200 profit off a dozen. Medicare also can, and frequently does, laugh in healthcare providers faces if overcharged and/or billed for needless, elective and/or premium care.

Medicare will still go bankrupt unless we do slow the meteoric rise of already high healthcare costs—it will just go broke about a decade after EVERYONE ELSE.