Social Security, Medicare Funds Dwindling Faster Than Expected

By MEENA THIRUVENGADAM
Wall Street Journal

WASHINGTON -- Social Security and Medicare trust funds are expected to run out of money sooner than expected, a report released Tuesday shows.

The report, from the programs' trustees, shows that expenses will exceed tax revenue for Medicare's hospital-insurance fund in 2017, two years earlier than was estimated in a 2008 report.

Social Security's trust fund is expected to be exhausted in 2037, four years earlier than last year's estimate. Social Security's expenses are expected to outpace the program's tax income by 2016. On a 75-year horizon, Social Security would need additional revenue equivalent to $5.3 trillion in today's dollars to pay all scheduled benefits.

The report "once again reminds us that the longer we wait to address the long-term solvency of Medicare and Social Security the sooner those challenges will be upon us and the harder the options will be," Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in response to the data.

(More here.)