SS, Medicare Trustees Report–It’s Even Worse Than We Thought

The trust fund for Social Security will be depleted in 2040, a yearbefore expected, and Medicare will exhaust its trust fund reserves just12 years from now, trustees for the programs said Monday.

Theirannual report showed deterioration in the financial condition of bothof the government’s two largest benefit programs. A year ago, thedepletion of the Social Security trust fund had been projected to occurin 2041 and the Medicare hospital insurance fund in 2020.

Thetrustees, who include the head of the Social Security Administrationand three members of President George W. Bush’s cabinet, gave a soberassessment of the health of the two programs in advance of the loomingretirements of 78 million baby boomers.

“We do not believe thecurrently projected long-run growth rates of Social Security orMedicare are sustainable under current financing arrangements,”trustees said in this year’s report.

Read more in The Detroit Free Press.

The full report is available here.