When Will Medicare and Social Security Run Out Of Money?

There is always much gnashing of the teeth about entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare. Okay, so let’s look at just when these two programs will run out of money.

Factors

The first thing to understand is there are no consistent dates. This articles is being written on May 13, so I can tell you the dates as of today. Those dates may change a year from now depending on how the economy does. If the economy perks up, the dates will be extended because more tax revenues will be coming in to fund the programs. If the economy loses steam, the dates with Social Security and Medicare run out of money will come quicker. This is undoubtedly frustrating to you as a reader, but we can at least eyeball the range of dates.

Medicare

Medicare is in worse shape than Social Security. The problem is the program is being hit by rising medical costs at the same time more draws are being made on it. The increase in draws is due to the fact Baby Boomers are starting to retire in mass. As they do, they switch from personal and employer health insurance onto Medicare. Since there are fewer workers replacing these boomers, the program funding is sucked dry pretty quickly.

So, is there a magic date when Medicare will go belly up? Yes. As of May 13, the projected year Medicare runs out of money will be 2024. How old will you be then?

Social Security

Although in better shape than Medicare, Social Security has it’s problems as well. The reason is the same – boomers. As Baby Boomer start to retire in mass, they start drawing on the Social Security fund as is their right. With more and more people drawing out money, the funds present are quickly devoured. This is rather shocking considering that the program actually ran a surplus up until 2008. What happened to the money? Congress siphoned it off and used it to pay for programs and interest on the national debt.

So, when is Social Security projected to fail? The magic date is sometime in 2036. Yeah, I’ll count on getting my check when I retire. Not!

Overall

It has been infamously said that the only way the rats we call politicians will deal with these problems is if they absolutely have to. Well, that time is quickly approaching. Keep in mind it will be well before either program goes belly up. Once beneficiaries realize the end is close, all hell will break out and our leaders will have no choice but to act.

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