Today, we will cover policy issues affecting the elderly. Many areas are encompassed, including health, long-term care, age discrimination, and grandparent visitation rights (see my Texas Tech lecture notes).
We'll probably spend the most time in class discussing Social Security, however, as it's an intergenerational program that affects workers and retirees of all ages. One student has already commented to me about the rules governing divorced spouses of Social Security recipients (described in the Polikoff book). Here are some helpful links:
How much money is coming into the federal government's Social Security Trust Fund each year and how much is going out to pay benefits to retirees
(a key distinction to keep in mind is that between each year's incoming and outgoing money, and the cumulative surplus that has built up at any one time)
How much money is deducted from each of your paychecks under "FICA" (Social Security and Medicare) payroll tax
Article on projected trends regarding Social Security's long-term solvency
Polikoff's book cites a report (p. 206, footnote 37; p. 240) by Favreault and Steuerle on ideas for changes to Social Security; I was able to find a PowerPoint slide show by these authors.
UPDATE: This is the article on long-term care that we discovered during today's class (see also p. 100 of the Bogenschneider book).
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5 comments:
Dealing with elderly will clearly be important in the next 50 years, as the babyboomers grow old. I think it is just important to note the number of careers that are associated with this age group. I think action needs to be taken immediatley by policy makers and people in power, to make sure that our country can adequatley help this population.
It seems a little scary that SS reserve will be run dry by the time that we are retirees. Although not everyone agrees with Bush's urging to invest in the stock market, it's not the only place that I've heard that. In one of my finance classes, the professor suggested the same thing. Obviously, each person needs to determine their own comfort level with planning for retirement, but I personally am not ruling out the idea of looking for alternative retirement funds!
I agree with meg. I am not so confident that there's going to fundings for me when I retire. If there is it will be less than what people are receiving now. I am totally going to look for other alternatives to help me save up for retirement. I just hope that the government is working on this issue to try to make sure everything works out. What if the government raise taxes like someone said in class? Are people willing to pay?
What's amazing about the SS shortfall, is that now that the baby boomers have been assured at least most of their money, it seems that this is no longer a major national concern. At least to the media. The next 40 or 50 years, seems like a reasonable amt of time to come up w/ a solution, yet policy and policy evaluation and programming take time to implement and evaluate. How long will we wait to reprogram SS?
I also agree with meg about the need to take matters in our own hands as far as our retirement is concerned. If our generation has been taught anything throughout the years it is that you have to look out for yourself, no one else is going to. Investing, saving, and penny-pinching are going to be the ways that we can count on being okay with retirement money. The government should be working on a solution, and I hope they find one! But until then I for one am going to consider my retirement my responsibility.
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