Go-broke dates pushed back for Social Security, Medicare, AP, 6/2/22

[progree]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/go-broke-dates-pushed-back-for-social-security-medicare/ar-AAY0suU?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=97d816e106574e309a079ae96b8314a4

The annual Social Security and Medicare trustees report released Thursday says Social Security’s trust fund will be unable to pay full benefits beginning in 2035, instead of last year's estimate of 2034. The year before that it estimated an exhaustion date of 2035.

“Economic recovery from the 2020 recession has been stronger and faster than assumed in last year’s reports, with positive effects on the projected actuarial status of the trust funds in these reports,” the report states.

Forecasters said in the report that the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic will have no net effect on their long-range projections. But they also noted that assumptions for their latest report were made in February, which was before cases began climbing again nationally and inflation rose even higher.

When the Social Security trust fund is depleted the government will be able to pay 80% of scheduled benefits, the report said. Medicare will be able to pay 90% of total scheduled benefits when the fund is depleted.

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As for Medicare's Hospital Trust Fund, the projected exhaustion date has been pushed back from 2026 to 2028.

EDIT - I bold-faced the last paragraph of the excerpt to highlight that these programs don't go away after the trust funds are exhausted. Under current law (i.e. if the law isn't changed), the payroll taxes that fund these programs continue, and (according to projections) will be sufficient to fund 80% of S.S.'s scheduled benefits and 90% of Medicare's Part A benefits. To get these benefits to 100% and 100%, Congress will have to act.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

1. We've been in this crisis before.

So many people depend on Social Security, that I have a lot of faith that this will be resolved.

[progree]

2. "I have a lot of faith that this will be resolved." - I do too /nt

[PSPS]

3. "Go broke?" Intentionally misleading headline to undermine the program.

Benefits would be reduced. It isn't "broke." And it will be fixed anyway.

[progree]

5. I agree.

[Metaphorical]

4. Demographics

People who are currently 52 will see these reductions, meaning that they were born in 1970. The birth rate hit a nadir in 1973, before beginning to climb again for another eighteen years. This means that, even without doing anything, the overall ratio of those receiving funding vs. those paying into the fund will temporarily rise a bit for a few years before the trend reverses itself by about 2038. If the Republicans would stop raiding social security, the fix should be a minor (maybe 1.5%) temporary increase in social security taxes by about 2030 that would expire by 2040. It's not really that big a deal. Of course, there's always a lot of gloom and doom about social security by the Right because the Wall Street casino operators want to "manage" those trillions in retirement funds into their own accounts, and that can only happen if people think that the program is a failure. when it is in fact one of the most singly successful social program ever created in the US.