The Congressional Budget Office recently published its long-term predictions of the federal budget and noted that the Medicare trust fund is not expected to be depleted until 2052 – 17 years later than what the CBO predicted previously. Expenditures are projected to be smaller for three reasons: Spending for Medicare Part A in 2024 was less than anticipated; the CBO now expects payments to hospitals to grow more slowly than it did last year; and the Agency updated its modeling of federal payments to insurers in the MA program. Because Medicare fee-for-service spending determines MA benchmarks, the slower growth in Medicare Part A spending led the CBO to lower its projections of MA spending.