The 2005 Annual Report of the Board of Trustees of the Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance and Disability Insurance Trust Funds was issued on March 23, 2005.  The report presents the current and projected future financial status of the Social Security trust funds.  Social Security will begin paying out more in benefits than it receives in taxes in 2017, 12 years from now and a year earlier than the trustees estimated last year.  The trustees estimate that the program will begin paying reduced benefits in 2041, also a year earlier than in their prior annual report.

Source: Social Security Administration (March 25, 2005)

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The Medicare trustees estimate that the Hospital Insurance (HI) Trust Fund will remain solvent until the year 2020, a one-year gain for estimated Part A solvency from the forecast of 2019 made by the trustees last year.  Over the next 10 years, HI expenditures are expected to grow somewhat faster than income.  Comparison with last year's estimates shows that actual payroll tax and other income in 2004 and projected future amounts are slightly higher than previously projected.  In addition, projected HI expenditures are slightly lower than before, due to slower growth in inpatient hospital benefits.  As in previous years, the trustees find that the Supplementary Medical Insurance Trust Fund (covering Part B and the new Part D of Medicare) remains adequately financed into the future -- but only because its financing from general revenues and beneficiary premiums rises with spending, says the U. S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in a press release. 

Source: U. S. Centers for Medicare Medicaid Services (March 25, 2005)

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