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Social Secuirty and Medicare- The Real Problem

Right now, everyone is talking about the problems with Medicare and Social Security, and how long they’ll be solvent for and what we can possibly do to fix them. But what I haven’t heard is anyone address the real issue behind the funding problems. No one wants to look at the 500 pound gorilla in the room because doing so would be offensive to many.

When these programs were created, people retired at 60 or 62 or 65, and then died at 75. Today, people retire at the same age, and sometimes earlier, depending on the union, yet people are living longer! We try so hard to keep people alive longer, but this causes a negative feedback issue.

When it comes to health care, who uses up the most resources? The elderly! I have one regular doctor, a primary care physician. But as you get older, you start seeing more and more different doctors: a cardiologist, an internal medicine doctor, an endocrinologist, etc. As a dentist, I have to stay on top of how many doctors my patients are seeing, and the number of doctors the elderly see, and the number of times they see each doctor for follow-ups is staggering. And who uses the most drugs? Again, the elderly. Two or three drugs for blood pressure, two or three for their heart, a couple for cholesterol, a couple for diabetes, and those are only the basic drugs. Again, staggering.

In no way am I implying that we shouldn’t provide for the elderly. if you are alive and are sick or have chronic conditions, you need to be treated. But that is a problem, because with people living longer, and the eligible age for Medicare not going up, more money is going to be used.

Social security, while a different animal, is the same in that people are living longer but the age at which you can start collecting it is the same as fifty years ago.

So, if you have any basic math skills and common sense, it is easy to see why the money will run out. If you have the same number paying into the systems year in and year out, but the number of people collecting checks and receiving medical care each year goes UP because people are living longer, then you are going to run out. Its as simple as that.

So, the big question is, how do you fix this all? Well, in my mind, its rather simple, rather obvious, and quite necessary. You raise the age at which people are eligible for the programs. I know this may be more difficult for Medicare, but when it comes to Social Security benefits… well, guess what? No more retiring at age 58 Mr. Teacher. EVERYONE has to work until their 67 or 70 unless their health prevents them from doing so.

You want to retire early, you save up for it and live on that until you are 67. End of story, people. Unless you want the government to start pulling out more money each paycheck, we need to see the age at which these benefits kick in raised. It may seem heartless, but if my generation (I am 31) wants to see anything when we retire in 30-40 years, people need to work and live by their own means longer.

We all want people to live longer. But the consequences of people living as long as they are today while retiring early are dire.

If anyone out there has a better idea, please, share