COVID recession pushed Social Security insolvency up a year

By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR and MARTIN CRUTSINGER
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The sharp shock of the coronavirus recession pushed Social Security a year closer to insolvency but left Medicare’s exhaustion date unchanged, the government reported Tuesday. It’s a counterintuitive assessment that deepens the uncertainty around the nation’s bedrock retirement programs. Social Security’s massive trust fund will be unable to pay full benefits in 2034 instead of last year’s estimated exhaustion date of 2035. The depletion date for Medicare’s trust fund for inpatient care remained unchanged from last year, estimated in 2026. The full impact from the coronavirus pandemic will take several more years to play out.