Chances are you see money deducted from every paycheck to fund Medicare. But while the bite may seem big, payroll taxes cover less than 40 percent of program costs. They’ve never paid for more than 68 percent of Medicare costs – that was in 1980 – and their share of Medicare revenue has been declining steadily for 30 years. In 2011 worker contributions brought in 38.1 percent of Medicare funding. The rest came from contributions from general federal revenues and premium payments.
All monies go into a trust fund which Medicare’s own trustees predict will run dry in 2024. Play and share today’s special video on the Medicare money problem, sample the views we’ve assembled for you in “What Do Others Say?”, then join the discussion below. Does today’s fact make you think differently about Medicare?
