Grand Challenges of Our Aging Society Workshop Summary (2010) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
5 Income Security and Health Care Financing Programs
5 Income Security and Health Care Financing Programs
Pages 31-40
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 31... ...
Yet at the same time that the need for retirement income is increasing, the retirement income system is contracting. Retirement income may be thought of as a three-legged stool consisting of public government funds (Social Security)
|
From page 32... ...
The solution to the retirement income challenge is straightforward and similarly threefold: people should remain in the workforce longer, make better use of retirement assets, and save more. Working longer, Munnell argued, "is really the most powerful thing people can do to have a secure old age." An individual retiring at age 62 receives 75 percent of the Social Security benefits that would come at the full retirement age which is moving toward 67, while an individual who continues working until age 70 gets 132 percent.
|
From page 33... ...
If the population is divided into income terciles, Social Security payments are crucial at the bottom, really important in the middle, and significant even for the top. Thus to suggest that shortfalls in the Social Security system be fixed partly by tax increases and partly by benefit cuts is not realistic.
|
From page 34... ...
H HEALTH CARE FINANCING Kenneth M Langa Department of Internal Medicine Uniersity of Michigan There are three basic questions regarding health care financing for an aging population: (1)
|
From page 35... ...
Decreases in cardiovascular disease have also contributed to decreases in disability prevalence, as have improvements in health care (such as cataract surgery, joint replacement, and treatment for hypertension and cholesterol)
|
From page 36... ...
Second, the so-called gray areas of decision making -- determining whether and how much to intervene -- is where health care money goes. As Langa observed, "I would argue that geriatrics is almost entirely defined by gray areas of decision making." Good geriatricians need to handle ambiguity and complexity.
|
From page 37... ...
AN INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE Andrew Mason Department of Economics Uniersity of Hawaii at Manoa Different societies provide for the economic needs of the elderly via a mix of public resources, private assets, and family transfers. Relying on data from the National Transfer Accounts Project, Mason traced patterns in health consumption and its finance, the labor income of older individuals, and the funding of the life-cycle deficit -- that is, the gap between consumption and labor income.
|
From page 38... ...
And can policies raise the labor income of the elderly by increasing the age of retirement and increasing the productivity of older workers? Turning to the composition of health care spending, data on publicly and privately funded health consumption from age 55 to over age 90 in several countries can be compared.
|
From page 39... ...
Those that rely most on public transfers include Austria, Finland, and Germany, as well as Japan and Costa Rica. The United States is unique among highly industrialized countries in relying more on private assets and less on public transfers.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.