Nationally, 1.51 million Americans were infected with the COVID-19 virus in August 2020 and 4.35 million Americans acquired the infection in August 2021.=
CSSE is reporting 41,181,068 positive cases in the U.S. and 661,385 deaths.
At the end of 2020, Medicare was covering 62.6 million Americans (19% of our population). The program was cash negative in 2020, taking in $900 billion of income (including $5 billion of interest income) while paying out $926 billion in benefits. Per an 8/31/21 report, the trust fund supporting Medicare Part A (hospital insurance) is projected to be depleted by 2026. The long-term (75-year) present value shortfall in the trust fund could be corrected by an immediate 0.77 percentage point increase in combined Medicare payroll taxes (from its current 2.90% to 3.67%) or an immediate 16% reduction in Medicare expenditures according to the Medicare Trustees 2021 Report. This was exacerbated by the 3.2 million Americans who retired in 2020, a +56% increase over the average 2.05 million Americans who retired over the previous 8 years, i.e., 2012-2019.
