first off, it's an insurance coverage and entitlement program. As more people live longer and as Obamacare expanded Medicaid that increases taxes to cover the costs. Of course the Medicare funding is basically defunct in debt since there are more people in the entitlement program.

In some cases, Medicare arguable decreases costs by paying a set dollar value for a diagnosis, or by DRG or CMG, which is often much less than the total charges. However, both Medicare and private insurance are somewhat paying more because of fee for services payment. More procedures and testing is the cause of that, however, not Medicare. Why is more testing/procedures being ordered? End of life prolongation is the main driver followed by defensive medicine due to litigious society. This is not a Medicare caused problem. Medicaid has more blame since those pts OOP is so low that they over utilize without any accountability or incentive to get off welfare. That's a societal problem, encouraging dependence on the government. Medicare over utilization and increasing costs however has more to do with the increased age of participants, older and sicker and living longer instead of dying.

And I stand by my original thought. The obesity epidemic in America is by far the biggest driver of our healthcare costs. Fat people equals more illness and disease, especially cardiac, #1 cost driver illness. Fat caused diseases kill people slowly too.
Go for a jog tomorrow!