Medicare finances: findings of the 2008 Trustees Report.

Each year Medicare's Board of Trustees issues a report that describes the financial condition of the Medicare program in the near term and over the next 75 years. Similar to recent trustees reports, the 2008 report projects that Medicare's Hospital Insurance Trust Fund will be depleted in 2019, at which time scheduled income will cover 78 percent of expenditures. Looking at these projections, some observers contend that Medicare must be fundamentally restructured in order to put the program--and the overall federal budget--on a sound fiscal course.

Medicare finances: findings of the 2007 Trustees report.

Each year Medicare's Board of Trustees issues a report that describes the financial condition of the Medicare program in the near term and over the next 75 years. Similar to recent trustees reports, the 2007 report projects that Medicare's Hospital Insurance Trust Fund will be depleted in 2019, at which time scheduled income will cover 79 percent of expenditures. For the first time, the trustees have issued a "Medicare funding warning," which means that more than 45 percent of Medicare will be financed by general (non-dedicated) revenues within the next seven years.

Medicare finances: findings of the 2006 trustees report.

Medicare helps pay medical expenses for 37 million Americans age 65 and older and 6 million persons with disabilities. The benefits are financed primarily by dedicated taxes on wages and self-employment income, premiums paid by beneficiaries, and payments from general revenues. According to the 2006 report of Medicare's trustees, Medicare's Hospital Insurance (HI) program is not adequately financed.