Conclusion
Table of Contents
Meeting the challenge of adapting to an aging society, including keeping Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security strong and affordable, requires substantial social change. As a nation, we are not now ready for the retirement of the baby boomers. As individuals, we must understand the implications of longer life expectancy and what that means for each of us throughout the lifespan.
While the aging of the population and longer life expectancy have an impact on the affordability and long-term viability of entitlement programs, the long-term estimates and future forecasts of the fiscal gap are highly volatile and uncertain. Other factors, namely the fragmented and disorganized delivery of health care (which costs too much and delivers too little), have a greater impact on the long-term fiscal gap than the aging of the population. Moreover, such projections are largely overstated because they do not factor in changes in health and long-term care, declining disability rates among older people, changing views of retirement, and the changing workforce. In addition, boomers are better educated and more economically secure, making them a more powerful consumer and economic force contributing to productivity and economic growth.
Nevertheless, we do face a significant national challenge to improve the quality of people’s lives while finding ways to keep pension, health care and other systems affordable and sustainable so they will endure for generations to come. Meeting this challenge will take the involvement of every sector of society. It will require systemic and broad social change, not simply shifting costs from one sector to another or from one generation to the next. As such, the responsibility for meeting this challenge is not just the government’s, it is the nation’s—including the private sector (for-profit and nonprofit) and individual citizens. Longer life expectancy has important implications for people regardless of age. As a society, we need to create a new vision that reaches beyond the immediate challenge of the aging of the boomers framed by a productive, high quality of life, and active engagement throughout the lifespan.
We can and must meet this challenge. Entitlement programs are vital to American families. They are sustainable and affordable, and the pending crisis that some foresee can be avoided if appropriate action is taken now to meet the nine challenges outlined in Reimagining America.
We cannot wait to get started on this agenda for social change. We are now close enough to see what is coming, and we must create a future to address the new realities. To evolve the new ideas and structures to get the best from all our citizens at every age requires an awakening, an understanding of American social and demographic change.
We have to address this from three different perspectives: the immediate, the intermediate, and the long-range. The immediate refers to those who are age 65 and older now. They have immediate needs and concerns, and we must make sure that our public policies and social structures meet those needs. Just as important, they make vital contributions to society and could do even more if society would only remove the barriers and create more outlets for their wisdom, creativity, experience, and knowledge. While it is common to view the increasing number of older Americans as the problem, it is important to understand that they are part of the solution. By continuing to contribute to society by working, volunteering, and providing care to grandchildren and other family members and friends, they are already helping society to adapt.
The intermediate is those who comprise the next generation of older people, roughly those 35-64. We must create social structures and public policies that encourage them to use their creativity, wisdom, and experience in productive outlets for the good of society. At the same time, we must remove the institutional barriers that stand in their way. We must also work to reverse the trend of increasing disability among this group so they will have a better quality of life as they age. And, we must find ways of helping them to accumulate and protect their retirement assets.
And the long-range pertains to our children. We cannot forget that one of the main reasons we have increased longevity in the first place is because those who went before us invested in the health and well-being of their children. We have come a long way in that regard, but still have a long way to go.
Our collective social responsibility is to help our fellow citizens, particularly the aging boomers and those younger generations who, inevitably, will age, understand the choices available, take hold of opportunities, reach their chosen goals, and make the most of their lives, from the earliest youth to the greatest old age. 2011 is imminent. America must prepare to meet it.