Social Security and the mingling of DI and OASI

The 2012 Social Security Trustees report estimates the year at which benefits will outpace Social Security (OASDI) payroll tax receipts plus spending authority granted by IOUs (from when more payroll taxes flowed in than benefits were paid out), and the program will no longer able to pay full benefits as 2033.

However, under current law, the disability portion (DI) of Social Security and the old-age retirement portions (OASI) are separate and always have been. The date of 2033 reported in the media and shown below under OASDI, assumes that Congress will pass a law allowing the mingling of funds from the old age (OASI) and disability (DI) portions of Social Security to pay for the disability shortfall, that will come about in 2016.

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Medicare’s funding future: income v. payroll taxes

(cross posted at freeforall)

The 2012 Medicare Trustees report is out (h/t @sarahkliff), and one graph jumped out at me: the historical and projected financing components of Medicare (payroll taxes, income taxes, premiums, and the much smaller items of taxes on benefits for higher income persons and state contributions for Part D).

Historically, payroll taxes have been the primary funding mechanism, but the further in the future we go, income taxes become increasingly important (general revenue transfers) for financing Medicare. As the report says on p. 25

The Trustees expect growth in SMI Part B and Part D premiums and general fund transfers to continue to outpace GDP growth and HI payroll tax growth in the future. This phenomenon occurs primarily because, under current law, SMI revenue increases at the same rate as expenditures, whereas HI revenue does not. Accordingly, as the HI sources of revenue become increasingly inadequate to cover HI costs, SMI revenues would represent a growing share of total Medicare revenues.

There are obviously many moving parts to such a projection, and there is great policy uncertainty about what we might do in the future. With that proviso I note two points:

  • Shifting more Medicare financing burden to income taxes is an increase in the use of a more progressive form of taxation (income taxes given current tax code) to fund Medicare
  • Payroll taxes and history of beneficiaries having paid payroll taxes have been a key part of the popularity of Medicare, and reinforced the (incorrect) notion that beneficiaries had pre-funded their Medicare costs (it is a pay as you go system). If income taxes are used to pay a larger portion of Medicare in the future, it may help to end the perception that beneficiaries already paid for the cost of their care. This post shows that payroll taxes by beneficiaries do not cover the cost of their care; they weren’t designed to do so, but the perception lingers to powerful effect that makes addressing the cost side of the program very hard