In less than a year, Trump erased 12 years of solvency for the trust fund that pays for Medicare Part A, Fortune, 2/23

[progree]

note this is a couple weeks old, but I only saw it for the first time yesterday

In less than a year, Trump erased 12 years of solvency for the trust fund that pays for Medicare Part A, Fortune, 2/23/26

Recent policy changes and economic shifts have slashed 12 years off the projected life span of the trust fund that pays for Medicare Part A, according to a newly updated report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The Hospital Insurance (HI) Trust Fund is now slated to be entirely exhausted by 2040, even though the balance generally increases through 2031, as spending will begin to outstrip income in the following year.

. . .

The primary culprit for this accelerated depletion is a sharp reduction in the fund’s projected income, heavily driven by legislation passed over the last year. Specifically, the 2025 reconciliation act (Public Law 119-21, more commonly known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act) significantly reduced the revenues the trust fund normally receives from taxing Social Security benefits. This legislation lowered tax rates and established a temporary deduction for taxpayers age 65 or older. Consequently, this major policy shift enacted during the Trump administration has directly contributed to starving the Medicare safety net of critical future funding.

MORE: https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/in-less-than-a-year-trump-erased-12-years-of-solvency-for-the-trust-fund-that-pays-for-medicare-part-a/ar-AA1WV3QA

The big takeaway is that the supposed big gift to seniors of a big tax credit that mostly offsets income taxation of Social Security benefits -- a much-ballyhoo'd provision of the One Big Brutal Bill Act -- is being robbed from revenue that would otherwise flow into the Medicare Hospital Trust Fund (Medicare Part A).

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Note that the CBO on 3/6/26 reported that the Social Security Old-Age and Survivors Insurance trust fund is expected to run out a year earlier than in last year's projection
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/social-security-benefits-predicted-to-run-out-earlier-than-expected-report/ar-AA1XGLdH

https://web.archive.org/web/20241031025445/https://www.ssa.gov/policy/trust-funds-summary.html

In 2022, an estimated 48 percent of beneficiaries paid income taxes on part of their benefits. Receipts from these taxes go to the OASDI Trust Funds and Medicare's Hospital Insurance Trust Fund. In 2023, income to the combined OASDI trust funds from the taxation of benefits amounted to $51 billion.

[Attilatheblond]

1. It's not an administration

It's a gang pulling a heist.

[yellow dahlia]

2. Yup.

administration CRIME SPREE

[MichMan]

3. So, if I understand this, we need to repeal the $6000 senior deduction and raise taxes on Social Security recipients.

Somehow I doubt that anyone running for election in 2026 & 2028 is going to run on that promise.