Officials Warn Medicare And Social Security Are In Trouble

     WASHINGTON (AP) - Trustees for the government’s two biggest
benefit programs are sounding a warning.
     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 thresh hold is expected to happen this year.
For Social Security, it could hit in 2017, with the retirement of
78 million baby boomers.