WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released two health care reports, one focusing on large-scale proposals for reforming the health care system, and the other on specific health care-related budget options the federal government can undertake.

The reports project that federal spending on Medicare and Medicaid will roughly double in the next decade, from $720 billion in 2009 to $1.4 trillion in 2019; and will grow as a share of gross domestic product from about 4 percent in 2009 to nearly 6 percent in 2019 and 12 percent by 2050.

"The numbers in these CBO reports are a clarion call to reform the biggest driver of projected skyrocketing budget deficits -- the fact that health care costs are growing faster than the U.S. economy," said Maya MacGuineas, President of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. "And with this new list of budget options, politicians can no longer use lack of information as an excuse for inaction."

Budget Options, Volume I: Health Care presents more than 100 discrete health care budget options -- many with considerable savings -- which address everything from the tax treatment of health insurance to spending on Medicare and Medicaid to the overall health care delivery system. Key Issues in Analyzing Major Health Insurance Proposals, meanwhile, focuses on health care proposals and provides extensive background information on the state of the nation's health care system.

"As Congress and the new administration craft a stimulus package to stabilize the economy in the short run -- but not bust the budget in the long run -- including many of the cost-saving measures the CBO has provided could potentially prove quite useful," said MacGuineas.

CBO will publish the more wide-ranging Budget Options pertaining to other government programs and options for reform early next year.