2018 Medicare Trustees Report Released

Two years ago, I reviewed the 2016 Medicare Trustees Report in detail and the 2018 report continues to use the same boilerplate template.  Some big changes in this year's report are:

• a projection for the Hospital Trust Fund (Part A) to run out of money in 2026 (three years sooner than the 2017 report, and two years sooner than the 2016 report projected).
• a projection that 2017 will be the last year that the Hospital Trust fund runs a surplus 
• a Medicare Funding Warning - a requirement by law that "the President must submit to Congress proposed legislation to respond to the warning within 15 days after the submission of the Fiscal Year 2020 Budget. Congress is then required to consider the legislation on an expedited basis."  (The 2019 budget was released in February 2018, so one might expect the 2020 budget to arrive around February 2019).

Motley Fool wrote a good article about the 2018 Trustees report which discusses a couple of potential solutions that are highlighted in the report.

• Raising the Medicare Qualifying age from 65 to 67
• Increasing Payroll Taxes slightly from 2.9% (1.45% each for employees and employers) to a new rate of 3.72% (1.86% each)

Obviously further details would need to be hashed out (e.g. for people born in what year would the new Medicare qualifying age begin?), but I believe both of these are viable options and I hope that our government acts quickly and proposes some changes to help sustain the Medicare system for the long-term since it is such a great form of Health Insurance.