Social Security, Medicare funds face depletion within a decade

Roll Call - Social Security’s finances worsened over the past year while Medicare's improved slightly, according to government actuaries. But the annual reports from the programs' trustees, released Friday, show that lawmakers could have some tough decisions to make within the next decade. The Social Security trustees report said that retirement benefits are expected to be paid in full until 2033, when they'd face a 23 percent cut if no policy changes are made. That's one year earlier than in last year's report. If combined with separate disability insurance funds, the combined exhaustion date of the retirement and disability programs moves up a year from last year's projection, to 2034. Medicare's Hospital Insurance trust fund, on the other hand, can pay full benefits until 2031, when benefits would be cut by 11 percent; that’s three years later than in the 2022 trustees report.