"The trustees project that the HI [hospital insurance] Trust Fund will be depleted in 2026, three years earlier than projected in last year’s report," the report stated on Tuesday. "At that time dedicated revenues will be sufficient to pay 91 percent of HI costs."
Meanwhile, Social Security, which provides income for retirees, will cost more in 2018 than the program collects in taxes and interest for the first time since 1982.
Both Social Security and Medicare will experience cost growth through the mid-2030s due to rapid population aging caused by the large baby-boom generation entering retirement and lower-birth-rate generations entering employment, the report explained.
Social Security and Medicare obligations are primarily responsible for growing US budget deficits. The two programs, plus interest on the national debt, account for about half of the $4.1 trillion budget for 2018.
