Trends That Should Receive Attention

There continue to be signs that America, along with all of the industrialized world, is aging. Some new numbers from the Social Security Administration, found in its Fast Facts and Figures About Social Security, 2009, bear repeating.

Between 1962, (the year I graduated from high school), and 2007, the percentage of the US population age 65 and older receiving Social Security benefits increased from 69% to 87%. The percentage of single people and couples with earned income was lower in 2007 than it was in 1962. Note: these numbers cut off before the major market recession in 2008/2009.

What do these numbers tell us? First, the population of the United States is aging, creating problems even before the so-called "baby boomers" retire. Second, older individuals are less likely, or able, to be working. Third, those who have savings are being forced to liquidate assets in their later years.

On the other end of the spectrum, Generation Y, (Americans born between 1977 and 1994), are not saving like their grandparents. In fact, according to a National Foundation for Credit Counseling survey, 45% have no savings at all. It is this same Generation which will be hit the hardest with additional taxes in order to support elderly baby boomers. With no savings of their own, how can they possibly fund the long-term care needs of the older generations?

All of the trends force us to conclude that rationing of health care for the elderly, which is already a fact of life, will continue to expand. The only real question is this: Do you want be involved in developing the solution? Are you willing to live with a solution devised by Washington bureaucrats? In To Tax or To Ration, we provide the information you will need to engage in "national conversation" on the subject of rationing. Read it. Get involved.