August 14, 2005 |
Posted By Diane Pfadenhauer |
Happy Birthday Social Security
Today marks the 70th birthday of our national social security program - otherwise known as OASDI. Here are some interesting tidbits of information according to the Social Security and Medicare Board of Trustees (report available here):
- The Social Security trust fund currently holds about $1.7 Trillion in special treasury bonds.
- The annual cost of Social Security benefits represents 4.3 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) today and is projected to rise to 6.4 percent of GDP in 2079
- Medicare's annual costs are currently 2.6 percent of GDP, or about 60 percent of Social Security's. They are now projected to surpass Social Security expenditures in 2024 and reach almost 14 percent of GDP in 2079
- In December 2004, 39.7 million people were receiving OASI benefits, 7.9 million were receiving DI benefits, and 41.7 million were covered under Medicare
