By Troy Danekes Producer
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) - Trustees for the government's two biggest benefit programs are sounding a warning.The Associated Press
Email to a Friend
Stumble It!They say the Social Security and Medicare funds face "enormous challenges," and that the threat to Medicare's solvency is far more severe.
Their annual analysis shows resources in the Social Security trust fund may be depleted by the year 2041. The report also finds certain reserves in the Medicare trust fund could be wiped out even sooner -- by the year 2019.
Those dates were the same as in last year's report.
But the trustees warn that the financial pressures will start much sooner. That would come when the programs start paying out more in benefits than they collect in payroll taxes each year.
For Medicare, that threshhold is expected to happen this year. For Social Security, it could hit in 2017, with the retirement of 78 million baby boomers.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)