Outlook darkens for Social Security, Medicare solvency

 Roll Call -  Higher health care costs and a law Congress passed last year to boost retirement benefits for public sector workers worsened the long-term outlook of Social Security and Medicare trust funds, according to annual reports released Wednesday by the programs’ trustees. 

The trust funds for Medicare and Social Security benefits would be depleted faster than expected compared to last year’s estimates, losing the ability to provide full benefits to retirees in some cases years earlier than previously projected.

The Hospital Trust Fund will only be able to pay 100 percent of scheduled benefits until 2033, three years earlier than the trustees reported last year, according to the trustee report. After that point, the program will only be able to pay 89 percent of total scheduled benefits, a summary says.