What you pay for Medicare won't cover your costs

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What you pay for Medicare won't cover your costs,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych]
Nearly three out of five people say in a recent Associated Press-GfK poll that they paid into the system so their benefits shouldn't be cut.
But a newly updated financial analysis shows that what people paid into the system doesn't come close to covering the full value of the medical care they can expect to receive as retirees.
Consider an average-wage, two-earner couple together earning $89,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych],[link widoczny dla zalogowanych],000 a year. Upon retiring in 2011,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], they would have paid $114,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych],000 in Medicare payroll taxes during their careers.
But they can expect to receive medical services — from prescriptions to hospital care — worth $355,000, or about three times what they put in.
Outpatient doctor visits and prescription drugs are paid for with a mix of premiums from collected from beneficiaries and money from the government's general fund. Seniors pay only one-fourth of the costs of those benefits through their premiums.
The system has worked for 45 years,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych],[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], with