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From the 2013 Trustee's report:

For the seventh consecutive year, the Social Security Act requires that the Trustees issue a “Medicare funding warning” because projected non-dedicated sources of revenues�primarily general revenues�are expected to continue to account for more than 45 percent of Medicare’s outlays in 2013, a threshold breached for the first time in fiscal year 2010.

The bottom line is that they average Medicare recipient gets three times more in benefits than they ever paid into the system. Premiums for Medicare Parts B and D (SMI) only cover 25% of the actual costs with the other 75% coming from General Revenues. As indicated above general revenues now cover 45% of the costs for Medicare. That number will continue to grow. The system is unsustainable. Medicare will eventually consume the entire federal budget if not reformed.

Medicare, like SS, is a pay as you go system, i.e., today's workers pay for today's retirees. By 2030 the number of those over 65 will double as one in 5 residents of this country will be 65 or older. In 2030 there will be just two workers for every retiree.