Whoopee, Social Security and Medicare have another year of life before the trust funds run dry. Highlights, if you can call them that, are:
The trustees now project that Medicare’s hospital-insurance trust fund will run dry by 2019 without changes in the popular entitlement program. Preventing depletion of the fund would require either a sharp rise in payroll taxes, or a cut in benefits covered by the program including inpatient hospital care, care in skilled-nursing facilities, hospice care and some home health care.
The Social Security system is projected to exhaust its trust fund in 2041 without changes. At that point, existing law would require the entitlement program to slash benefits across the board.
Lowlights…
“Reforms to both Medicare and Social Security are urgently needed. The serious concerns raised by the trustees reports demand the attention of America’s policy-makers and the public,” said Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who serves as managing trustee of the programs.
The report also triggered for the first time a “Medicare funding warning” that will require President Bush to submit a proposal next year to cut costs. Congress must consider the proposal, but isn’t bound to pass a new law.
I’m sure if Congress passes any kind of law, it will be an idiotic one.
