The Medicare and Medicaid systems are funded in part by the annual federal budget. There has been much written in the press during the last few years about the high cost of the federal entitlement programs which include Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. As the demographics of the population in the U.S. changes, with a large population of retirees, some say these programs are in danger of causing a major financial crisis. Basically the U.S. is having a hard time financing the people who use these three programs because the number of people who are getting older and qualify is becoming a larger percent of population. Right now there is money that is being contributed to these programs from taxes, but in the current economy in the next couple of years there will be more people using these three programs then there will be financing them. This is the primary concern of those who oppose a universal health care initiative. They believe that the U.S. does not have the money to pay for universal health care when the existing programs are in danger of bankruptcy at some point in the future. This concern needs to be effectively addressed for a national health care plan to be successful The solution must be viable in the long term and not just a quick fix that will create a crisis for future generations(Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services). The citizens of the United States are concerned about the availability of affordable health care. In 2002 in a national