WASHINGTON (AP) – A severe coronavirus crisis forced Social Security a year to repay its debt but left Medicare’s tiring day unchanged, the government responded Tuesday in an attempt to dispel uncertainty surrounding the country’s retirement plans.
New perspectives on the annual Social Security and Medicare trustee reports indicate that the Social Security Fund will not be able to pay in full by 2034 instead of the end of last year by 2035. For the first time in 39 years the cost of benefits will exceed all program coverage. and interest this year. From now on, Social Security will be using its resources to make the most of it.
The last day of the Medicare’s trust fund for patient care has not changed since last year, around 2026.
In the 1980s, economic warnings on Social Security urged then-President Ronald Reagan and lawmakers from all parties in Congress to embrace long-term plans, but this would not happen in a time of political turmoil. Democrats in charge of the White House and Congress have vowed to protect both programs.
“Biden-Harris officials are committed to protecting these programs and ensuring that they continue to provide financial security and care to the elderly in the United States,” Secretary of Treasure Janet Yellen said in a statement.
Recent speculation suggests the pull and pull of many of the elements that come from the plague, and all the difficulties can take years to resolve. The short-term economic downturn reduced tax revenue. But the high mortality rate from COVID-19, which was growing among the elderly, reduced future Social Security payments. Hospitals were overwhelmed by the growing number of COVID patients, but Medicare did not have to pay for multiple knee surgeries, colonoscopies and other routine procedures. The number of births and aliens, who tend to promote both programs, both fell.
For Social Security, the loss of payroll taxes exceeded any income from what the program would have provided to people whose lives had been lost in the epidemic. The report said that employment, profits, interest rates, and economic growth declined in the second half of 2020 after the plague hit the United States.
“The cost of both programs has been significantly affected by the epidemic and the 2020 recession,” the trustees said. But “because of unpredictability” it did not agree with the long-term effects of the epidemic. Upcoming Medicare Question: Will the people who benefit from the epidemic be healthy, or will more people suffer from problems like long-term COVID?
Social Security provides benefits to more than 65 million Americans, mostly retired and disabled people and survivors who have died. Medicare affects more than 60 million elderly and disabled people. Together, all these programs are more than 40% of the federal, and they provide a boost not only to families, but also to the national economy.
While the remote comparison is impressive, soon there was good news for Social Security recipients.
Government economists who wrote the Social Security report say the recent rise in inflation means that the 2022 price change is close to 6%, a significant jump from the 1.3% COLA released this year.
Some of these can go to great lengths for Medicare. Medicare “Part B” patient pay rates are expected to rise by $ 10 a month in 2022, to $ 158.50 according to the report. The official number will not be released until the end of this year.
Social Security and Medicare remain in dire financial straits after the retirement of millions of boomers, who live longer than in previous generations.
After the Social Security Funds, the government will be able to pay 78% of its benefits, the report said.
Because the lack of these benefits could lead to political turmoil, it seems likely that the next Congress will find better ways to compensate for losses, either by raising taxes paid by those who work here or by increasing government borrowing to repay the shortfall.
It is unclear how Tuesday’s Medicare report could affect a debate in Capitol Hill allowing the program to discuss prescription drug prices and spend the expected costs to provide new Medicare dental, vision and hearing care. Republicans have said that any money should be donated to support the program, not to increase profits.
The Medicare report has tried to avoid making anything about Alzheimer’s drug, Aduhelm, which has a $ 55,000 price list. Most of America’s 6 million people with Alzheimer’s disease have this program, though not all of them would like to receive the treatment. Economists who wrote the report said it was too early to estimate how the drug would affect Medicare, as the program has not legally decided how to prevent this.
The trustees’ report, which is delayed for months, represents the government’s efforts to monitor last year’s epidemic and the financial crisis in Social Security and Medicare.
The U.S. economy lost 22.4 million jobs in March and April 2020 when the epidemic forced businesses to close or cut their hours and the economy began to decline.
But the economic downturn has been temporary and employment has returned as economic growth resumes. Employers have brought back 16.7 million jobs since April 2020 but that benefit still leaves 5.7 million workers under the pre-epidemic epidemic.
The Social Security and Medicare Trustees include the secretaries of Treasury, Health and Human Services, and Labor, as well as the Commissioner of Social Security. They should be accompanied by “state trustees,” ordinary citizens who are the eyes and ears of tax collectors and beneficiaries. But the place has been vacant since the end of Obama’s term. And this year there is no more Commissioner for Social Security, as President Joe Biden fired Andrew Saul, who was elected Trump’s successor.