As national attention turns to the federal deficit, some policymakers have proposed reforms to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security that could have significant implications for current and future generations of Americans. This data brief describes the income and assets of the current Medicare population, and examines the extent to which income and assets are likely to be higher for the next generation of beneficiaries. For most of the next generation of Medicare beneficiaries, average incomes will be moderately higher than the incomes of the current beneficiaries, after adjusting for inflation; however, the projected growth is concentrated in the upper incomes.