An updated financial analysis shows that the amount workers have paid does not 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 $89,000 a year. Upon retiring in 2011, they would have paid $114,000 in Medicare payroll taxes during their careers. But they can expect to receive medical services - including prescriptions and hospital care -- worth $355,000, or about three times what they put in.
