Oh Coffee and Worry

I'm 28 years old, single, with a good job. I ski and chase around bars on the weekend. Even if those weekends are now three days instead of two due to furlough, I don't have a lot to worry about. That said, I have a home mortgage and a pretty decent savings built up. I still consider myself a kid, but maybe a responsible one.

My parents are growing into their 60s and all the talk of entitlement reform has got me thinking. I've done some research about SS and Medicare and think that they are vital programs. They provide for our elderly population and if you look at life expectancy after 65, the benefits of Medicare are clearly evident.

However as a young person with the majority of my working years still ahead of me, I am concerned about the viability of the programs considering population growth and life expectancy trends going forward. A few ideas for reform:
-Tie benefit receipt to some need based indicator (We should not punish those who plan ahead and save, but if you don't need SS/Medicare - let's give it to those who do)
-Move the qualifying age to later in life to reflect current life expectancy. Tie the age to a moving indicator such as current life expectancy - this would be statistically based and probably in line with how SS plans their projections anyway. 67 years old is an arbitrary measure if the bar continues to move. I have read that some expect my generation to live into our 100s. 40 years of benefits would be almost equal to the number of years that I will pay into the system. And conversely, in the tragic case that life expectancy might decline, the bar would also move to match projections. The life expectancy should also be tied to a later time frame in life such as life expectancy for those who have reached 30 years old (decent working age, probably have paid into the system, stats won't be skewed for unfortunate youth death rates)
-Pay back the IOUs into the entitlement system - There is a misnomer that the system is broken. Sure it needs some fixing, but what is broken is that we have raided the piggy bank for years.
-I know it's hot button, but end of life care and those expenses should be considered. Life ends for all of us. Let's focus on the quality of the end and not on prolonging the end. (I'm just some young punk anyway, what do I know about the subject and the scary nature of the impending....)

I'm sure there are many more ideas that I'm not smart enough to articulate, but drinking my coffee this morning the itch grabbed me to roll around these few loose coins gangling in my pocket.