WASHINGTON (AP) – Despite some good news, Medicare and Social Security still face long-term financial problems as millions of baby boomers reach retirement. Social Security’s disability program is already in crisis as it edges toward the brink of insolvency.
Getting relief from a slowdown in health care spending, Medicare’s giant hospital trust fund won’t be exhausted until 2030, the government said Monday. That’s four years later than last year’s estimate.
As for Social Security, its massive retirement program will remain solvent until 2034. The disability trust fund, however, is slated to run dry in just two years. At that point, unless Congress acts, the program will collect only enough payroll taxes to pay 81 percent of benefits.
“The fact is, without bipartisan action, benefits will be cut,” said Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.
The trustees who oversee Social Security and Medicare issued their annual report Monday on the financial health of the government’s two largest benefit programs. Together, they accounted for 41 percent of all federal spending last year.