Following is an excerpt from the March 31, 2023 Social Security report. Nothing new, sadly they have been saying pretty much the same thing for more than a decade – and it has been ignored while Congress focuses on politics.
Time is running out!
Under the intermediate assumptions, the projected hypothetical combined OASI and DI Trust Fund asset reserves become depleted and unable to pay scheduled benefits in full on a timely basis in 2034. At the time of depletion of these combined reserves, continuing income to the combined trust funds would be sufficient to pay 80 percent of scheduled benefits.The OASI Trust Fund reserves are projected to become depleted in 2033, at which time OASI income would be sufficient to pay 77 percent of OASI scheduled benefits. DI Trust Fund asset reserves are not projected to become depleted during the 75-year period ending in 2097.
Lawmakers have a broad continuum of policy options that would close or reduce Social Security’s long-term financing shortfall. Estimates for many such policy options are available at ssa.gov/OACT/solvency/provisions/.
The Trustees recommend that lawmakers address the projected trust fund shortfalls in a timely way in order to phase in necessary changes gradually and give workers and beneficiaries time to adjust to them. Implementing changes sooner rather than later would allow more generations to share in the needed revenue increases or reductions in scheduled benefits. Social Security will play a critical role in the lives of 67million beneficiaries and 180 million covered workers and their families during 2023. With informed discussion, creative thinking, and timely legislative action, Social Security can continue to protect future generations.
Trustee Report
Time is Running Out to Save Social Security and Medicare
Today, the Social Security and Medicare Trustees released their annual reports on the state of the trust funds. The Trustees project that Medicare’s Hospital Insurance trust fund will be insolvent by 2031, Social Security’s Old-Age and Survivors Insurance trust fund will run out of reserves by 2033, and the theoretically combined Social Security trust funds will be insolvent by 2034. Upon insolvency, Social Security benefits will be reduced across the board by 20 percent under current law, while Medicare Hospital Insurance payments will be cut by 11 percent. Those reductions will grow to 27 percent and 19 percent, respectively.
Read our preliminary analysis of the Trustees reports here. You can also register for our April 4th event on the Trustees reports here.
The following is a statement from Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget:
Social Security and Medicare are hurtlinig toward insolvency, and we only have a decade to secure these programs for America’s retirees. Yet many in Washington would rather weaponize these programs than save them.
Anyone who pledges not to touch Social Security is endorsing a 20 percent across-the-board cut in benefits. Refusal to fix Medicare means supporting major disruptions in health services.
We don’t have much time left to save these programs from insolvency. Today’s youngest retirees will be 70 years old when Medicare’s reserves are depleted and 73 years old when the Social Security trust funds run out. Under current law, Social Security and Medicare will both be insolvent by the time today’s 56-year-olds reach the full retirement age.
Medicare’s finances are slightly better than projected last year, while Social Security’s are slightly worse. But the underlying picture hasn’t changed – these vital programs face large and growing shortfalls that will require reducing costs, boosting revenue, or both.
As partisans and special interests continue to demagogue Social Security and Medicare for short-term political gain, they are putting our nation’s workers and seniors at risk.
It’s time for our leaders to take their heads out of the sand and put them together to develop real and lasting solutions to save Social Security and Medicare.
Read our preliminary analysis.
Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget
QUINNSCOMMENTARY 
Many who post here know that no one has paid for the benefits that they will receive from SS or Medicare if they live to the average life expectancy. Congress will wait until 5 minutes to Midnight before they do anything and then it will not be enough. I am planning on seeing a cut in benefits or worse, they will do nothing and cut the benefits of future retirees to balance the fund.
LikeLike
Weren’t they saying a year ago that the Medicare trust fund would become insolvent in like 2026 – now its 2031? Sounds that these estimates are not that accurate. Like weather forecasts that are more than a couple of days in advance.
LikeLike
All depends on the number of people working (paying FICA taxes), size of the COLAs, number of people collecting, and trust fund bond rates, to name a few variables.
LikeLike