Social Security and Medicare funds at risk even before virus
By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR and MARTIN CRUTSINGER Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The financial conditions of the government’s two biggest benefits programs remain shaky, with Medicare projected to become insolvent in six years and Social Security on track to no longer be able to pay full benefits starting in 2035. And that’s without accounting for the impact of the coronavirus, which is sure to impose further pressure on the two programs. For Social Security, the projected 2035 date for exhausting the trust fund reserves means that it would be able to pay only 79% of benefits at that time. The projected timetables, which remained unchanged from last year’s estimates, were revealed with the release of the annual trustees’ reports of both programs.