Medicare is the federal health insurance program for Americans age 65 and older and those with disabilities, and Social Security is important to retirees, worker survivors, and some people with disabilities. We provide monthly benefit checks. Social Security and Medicare hospital care coverage is paid for by trust funds made up of dedicated taxes paid by workers and employers, not from general tax revenues like most other parts of government. Unless lawmakers approve the change before the deadline, Medicare and Social Security will be forced to drastically cut benefits to seniors because both programs are paying more than they receive.
The report is published annually by the Social Security and Medicare Trust Fund Board of Trustees, which is made up of senior government officials such as Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra.
“Legislators have many change options to reduce or eliminate long-term funding shortfalls,” the trustee said in the report. “With lawmakers inaction every year, the public has less time to prepare for change.”
The report predicts that Medicare funding will dry up in 2031, three years later than the Trustees had previously estimated, giving lawmakers more time to address the program. can get a lot of time. However, the date by which social security benefits are exhausted has been pushed forward to 2033.
Benefits don’t stop if the program goes bankrupt, but the government can only pay a fraction of what people are entitled to receive. The trustee’s report predicts that from 2033, the Social Security Old Age and Survivor Insurance Trust Fund will be able to pay 77% of that amount. Starting in 2031, Medicare hospital insurance will be able to pay his 89% of scheduled hospital service benefits, the report says.
The average monthly social security benefit check this year is $1,827. More than 60 million people are currently collecting benefits. About 65 million Americans are enrolled in Medicare, the original version of the program that allowed them to choose their own doctors and other health care providers, or the increasingly popular version that relied on Managed His Care His Plan. is either
Despite broad agreement among experts about the dangers posed by the imminent shortage, policymakers in Washington said this year amid bitter partisan divisions over how to solve the problem. Almost agreed not to address the issue. imminent. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, committees created by Congress or the White House attempted to come up with plans to secure the future of the program, but their efforts were dissolved in controversy and an equally powerful There have been years of no effort.
Mark Goldwine, senior vice president and senior policy director for the Board on a Responsible Federal Budget, said: In a statement prior to the release of the report, the DC-based think tank called for reducing its deficit. “Given the inability under the law to guarantee full benefits to current retirees, this cynical approach does a great disservice to those most dependent on these programs.”
This report provides updated estimates of when the United States may reach these impasses. Rising health care costs and an aging population are straining finances and straining Medicare, according to the report. Social Security faces a similar funding shortfall as the US population ages.
Administrative officials say the coronavirus pandemic has impacted how much care people are getting in hospitals, the fact that Americans still don’t want as many medical services as they did before the coronavirus, and the The excess death toll of HIV involves many people with other illnesses who were receiving expensive treatment they no longer need.
Administration officials also acknowledged that there is considerable uncertainty about how the program’s finances will be affected by future birth rates, calling it a “big question mark.” It is unclear how long parents would wait to have children rather than decide not to have children outright, which would make it difficult to maintain funding for the program. background call.
The report said the Social Security bankruptcy date has been brought forward as economic growth is projected to be slower than previously estimated. The primary reason Medicare’s bankruptcy deadline has been extended is the projected decline in health care costs “due to an updated analysis using more recent data,” the report said.
Lawmakers are divided over the future of the program. Democrats have largely argued that the program can remain financially stable without cutting benefits through higher taxes, and President Biden announced plans earlier this year to extend Medicare’s lifespan by more than 20 years. Medicare-specific taxes on people earning more than $400,000 will increase, making it harder for wealthy people to avoid paying these taxes.
The White House did not announce plans to extend the life of Social Security. But.
Republicans in Congress have not united on plans to protect the solvency of either program. Dozens of Republican lawmakers backed plans to cut both Medicare and Social Security benefits, but appeared to backtrack on those ideas earlier this year amid heavy criticism from the Biden administration.
They have expressed concern about the lack of funding, but some experts point out that Social Security is not particularly generous in its current form. The cost will still be less than 7% of the gross domestic product of the United States decades from now, or less than what Germany, Austria, France and most other developed countries currently spend on their corresponding programs. Predicted. , a left-wing think tank that opposes program cuts.
“The question of increasing or decreasing social security is a question of value, not affordability,” the group said. “The threat to Social Security is invisible and not easily addressed by the projected shortfalls beginning in the 2030s. The real threat is Republican animosity in Congress.”
Still, conservatives were ready to cite the report as evidence that the program must be restructured.
Republican policy analyst Doug Holtz-Eakin said in an interview before the report’s release, “It’s an honorable practice in D.C. to release a document on Friday afternoon that we’re not particularly happy with.” . “They’re trying to fill it in, and they should, because they’re saying, ‘We don’t want to touch these things. And, as the trustee’s report says, They have to.”
