What the 2026 Social Security and Medicare Trustees Report Means for Your Retirement

The Social Security and Medicare Trustees released their 2026 report on June 9, and the headline didn’t move much from last year: both trust funds are still on track to run short in 2033. That’s seven years out. If you’re retired now, or planning to be within the next decade, it’s worth understanding what that actually means, because it’s not what most headlines make it sound like.

What the Trustees Actually Reported

A trust fund running short doesn’t mean the lights go off. Social Security and Medicare are funded mainly through payroll taxes coming in right now, not a savings account that empties to zero. Once the trust fund is depleted in 2033, the programs would still pay benefits using that ongoing tax revenue, just at a reduced level, around 89% of what’s scheduled for Social Security unless Congress changes something before then.

Seven years is enough time for that to happen. It’s also not nothing, which is why this report matters more to people retiring in the next decade than to anyone already comfortably settled.

The Raise You Got, and the Premium That Took a Bite Out of It

Here’s the part that already affected your bank account this year. The 2.8% cost-of-living adjustment raised the average Social Security check by about $56 a month, from $2,015 to $2,071. Married couples saw a combined bump of roughly $88, bringing their average to $3,208.

Medicare had other plans. The standard Part B premium jumped 9.7% in 2026, from $185 to $202.90 a month, and it comes out of most people’s Social Security checks automatically. That ate close to $18 of the COLA increase before it ever reached a checking account.

AARP surveyed older adults last fall and found that 77% said even a 3% COLA wouldn’t be enough to keep up with rising costs. The actual increase landed at 2.8%. Do the math, and a lot of retirees ended the year with less real purchasing power than they started with, even though their check technically went up.

Why This Isn’t a Reason to Panic, but Is a Reason to Plan

AARP’s response to the report was blunt: more than 71 million people rely on Social Security, and cutting it isn’t something the 125 million Americans over 50 are going to accept quietly. Lawmakers know it too. The likely fixes, whether that’s adjusting the payroll tax cap, raising the retirement age further, or some combination, are political problems to be solved over the next several years, not a cliff anyone is about to fall off in 2033.

But “Congress will probably figure it out” isn’t a plan you can build a retirement on. It’s a forecast, and forecasts change. The honest lesson from this year’s report is one that was already true before it came out: Social Security was never designed to cover all of anyone’s retirement costs, and the space between what it provides and what retirement actually costs keeps getting wider, not narrower.

What This Means for Your Plan Right Now

If your retirement income leans heavily on Social Security, rising Medicare premiums and modest COLAs are going to keep chipping away at it, report or no report. The fix isn’t waiting to see what Washington does. It’s making sure your income doesn’t depend entirely on what Washington does.

For some of our clients, that means restructuring retirement accounts and investments to produce steadier, more predictable income instead of riding out whatever the market or Congress decides. For veterans and their spouses, it can also mean a second look at benefits already earned but never claimed, like VA Aid & Attendance, which can provide meaningful additional monthly income for those who need help with daily care and qualify under VA rules. We’ve seen plenty of households who assumed Social Security and a pension would carry them, only to find a sizable benefit sitting unclaimed.

As an independent firm, we don’t have a product or company we’re pushing you toward. We look at your full situation, Social Security, Medicare costs, retirement accounts, any VA or Medicaid benefits you may be entitled to, and build a plan around how those pieces actually work together, not how any one of them looks in isolation.

Take the First Step

A free consultation with Burgos & Brein is a no-obligation conversation about where you stand. We’ll tell you plainly what your numbers look like under this year’s changes, where the gaps are, and what’s worth doing now versus later. We’ve worked with retirees and veteran families nationwide for over 15 years, and you won’t go through this conversation alone.

866-949-7675 | BurgosandBrein.com | Info@BurgosandBrein.com

The Trustees report comes out every June whether you read it or not. The question is whether your plan can absorb what it says.