........Washinton -- Even as Congress hunted for ways to finance a major expansion of Health Insurance Coverage, the Obama Administration reported Tuesday that the financial condition of the two largest federal benefit programs, Medicare and Social Security, had deterioted, in part because of the Recession............................................As a result, the Administration said, the Medicare fund that pays hospital bills for older Americans is expected to run out of money in 2017, two years sooner than projected last year. The Social Security Trust fund will be exhausted in 2037, four years earlier that predicted...............................................................Spending on Social Security and Medicare totaled more than $1 trillion last year, accounting for more than one-third of the federal budget........................................................The fragility of the two programs is a concern not just for current beneficiaries, but also for future retirees, taxpayers and politicians. Lawmakers say they would never allow Medicare's Trust fund to run out of money. But Beneficiaries could be required to pay higher premiums, co-payments and deductibles to help cover the costs.................................................The projected date of insolvency, widely used measure of the benefit programs financial Health, shows the immense difficulties President Obama and Congress will face in trying to shore them up while also extending Health Coverage to millions of Americans............................................The labor Secretary, Hilda L. Solis, noted that 5.7 million jobs had been lost since the Recession began in December 2007. With fewer people working, the government collects less in payroll taxes, a major source of financing for Medicare and Social Security. A resumption of economic growth is not expected to close the financail gap..........................................The Trustees' bleak projections already assume that the economy will begin to recover late this year.....................................................................The Treasury Secretary, Timothy F. Geithner, said the only way to keep Medicare solvent was to "oontrol runaway growth in both public and private Health Care expenditures." And he said President Obama intended to do that as part of his plan to guarantee access to Health Insurance for all Americans............................................But if cost controls do not produce the expected savings, Congress is likely to find it difficult to preserve benefits without increasing taxes...................................................................................

.........Just hours before the Trustees of Medicare and Social Security issued their annual report, suggesting that the nation could not afford the programs it had, the Senate Finance Committe finished a hearing on how to pay for the expansion of Health Insurance Coverage that President Obama seeks..........................Mr. Obama said that he does not want to finance expanded Health Coverage with more deficit spending. Rather, he says, Congress must find ways to offset the costs, so they do not add to the deficit over the next decade.............................................Federal deficits and debt are soaring because of the Recession and federal efforts to shore up banks and other industries while trying to revive the economy with a huge infusion of federal spending.....................................In coming years, Medicare spending will increase faster than either workers' earnings for the econmoy over all...................................The Trustees also predicated that, for the first time in more than three decades, Social Security recipients would not receive any increase in their benefits next year or in 2011. In 2012, they predicated the cost-of-living adjustment will be 1.4%.....................................The aging of baby boomers will strain both Medicare and Social Security, but Medicare's financial problems are more urgent.....................................The Trustees predict that average Medicare spending per beneficiary will increase more than 50% to $17,000 in 2018, from $11,000 last year...................................Representative Pete Stark, the California Democrat who is the Chairman of the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health, said, "the Medicare report "underscores the urgent need for health reform."...............................................................Resource: The New York Times, Politics, Recession Drains Social Security and Medicare, C May 2009.

This is a shame and thank goodness that President Obama got some medical/health companies to reduce something a lot over the next 10 years.  This shows the good side of Obama raising lots of campaign money from regular people.  Clinton, Bush, etc failed because those companies had given them campaign contributions and so they owed them and wouldn't ask them to change.If we go after welfare frauds, why not go after social security and/or medicare frauds?  Something needs to be done besides cutting benefits and raising payroll taxes.   Hell, I'm younger and both things will be broke by the time I need them.  I'm glad my mom told me to not count on social security and to save for retirement through my job or some place else.  This sucks because some workers' 401ks are down a lot and then the government drives the knife in deeper by saying ss and med will be broke soon.  I'm glad they admitted it though. I hope Obama fixes our healthcare system and saves ss and med.  Both parties must work together and the blame game won't work.