Pandemic’s Impact on Key Medicare Trust Fund Seen as Limited (1)

The Covid-19 pandemic doesn’t appear to have had an outsized effect on the trust fund that pays Medicare’s inpatient hospital costs.

Medicare’s hospital insurance trust fund will be able to pay full benefits until 2026, the same as the last two year’s projection, despite a presumed decline in payroll tax revenue due to Covid-related layoffs, a federal report released Tuesday found.

Social Security has enough to cover benefits until 2033, which is one year less than last year’s projection, according to the annual report released by the Social Security and Medicare Boards of Trustees. The slowdown in revenue, employment, and ...