Universal Health Insurance Q&A at 11:05 AM est C-Span1 - Future of Medicare 12:30 PM EDT

11:05 AM EDT
1:14 (est.)

Forum: Universal Health Insurance
Harvard University, Kennedy (J.F.) School of Government
David Cutler , Harvard University
Jon Kingsdale , Commonwealth Health Insurance Connector

http://inside.c-spanarchives.org:8080/cspan/schedule.csp?

12:30 PM EDT
1:30 (est.) LIVE
Forum
Future of Medicare
American Enterprise Institute
Gail Wilensky , Project Hope
Robert L. Bixby , Concord Coalition
The beginning and end of this live program may be earlier or later than the scheduled times.

C-Span I - http://www.c-span.org/watch/cs_cspan_rm.asp?Cat=TV&Code=CS

Paulson: Social Security fix needed

http://money.cnn.com/2008/03/25/pf/soc_sec_trustees_report/?postversion=2008032517

Treasury Secretary says program is 'financially unsustainable.'

Trustee report says government will have to pay back what it owes starting in 2017.

By Jeanne Sahadi, CNNMoney.com senior writer
Last Updated: March 25, 2008: 5:43 PM EDT

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) --

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, saying that Social Security is "financially unsustainable," called Tuesday for quick action to keep the system strong and released a report detailing the program's funding shortfalls.

The federal government will have to start paying back what it owes the Social Security trust fund in 2017 so the program can continue paying 100% of benefits. By 2041, if the system is left unchanged, Social Security will only be able to pay out 78% of benefits promised to future retirees.

Those are two key estimates in the Social Security and Medicare trustees' 2008 annual report.

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Medicare a bigger problem

Medicare, which was also addressed in Tuesday's report, has an even larger and more immediate funding deficit to address.

The Medicare program is already taking in less than it has committed to pay out, and the trustees forecast that the Medicare trust fund will be depleted by 2019, at which point Medicare would only be able to pay out 78% of costs.

Medicare was designed to be funded by three sources: payroll taxes; Medicare premiums paid by beneficiaries; and general revenue or money from income taxes.

The payroll tax portion of that funding comes from a 2.9% tax on all wages - half of which is paid by workers and half by their employers. To make Medicare solvent over the next 75 years, the trustees estimate that 6.44% of wages would need to be taxed.

As they did last year, the trustees issued a funding warning in their 2008 report, which they're required to issue when they anticipate that general revenues will have to fund more than 45% of Medicare's total expenditures within the next six years.

Lawmakers won't be able to solve the long-term shortfalls in Medicare until they find a way to reform health care, said Paul Van De Water, senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

"Medicare's long-term financing problems are due to the sharp rise in health care costs, not to structural problems particular to Medicare."