62, 65, 67, 70.
All these ages are important when it comes to Social Security and Medicare.
And these ages are also targets in the contentious debate over how to shore up the shaky finances of the massive entitlement programs.
Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley recently zeroed in on raising the retirement age for Americans in their 20s as a way to reform Social Security, saying it should match their life expectancy. The controversial position was echoed by GOP Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina on CNN’s “State of the Union” last Sunday. Neither said what the new retirement age should be.
Many folks may think that people can start collecting their full Social Security benefits at age 65, which was the retirement age for decades. But Congress changed that as part of its 1983 overhaul of the entitlement program.
Lawmakers gradually increased the full retirement age – the first to be affected were people who turned 65 in 2003. Americans born in 1960 or later must wait until they turn 67 to collect their full benefits.
However, unless Congress acts, neither Social Security nor Medicare will be able to provide their full benefits within the next decade or so.
Social Security’s trustees said last year that the program’s combined retirement and disability trust funds will be depleted in 2035, at which time Social Security will only take in enough income to pay 80% of scheduled benefits. A more recent forecast by the Congressional Budget Office pegged the date at 2032 for the depletion of the retirement trust fund.
Meanwhile, Medicare’s trustees said last year that its hospital insurance trust fund, known as Part A, would drain its assets by 2028. At that time, it will only be able to pay 90% of benefits. The CBO put the date at 2033.
The retiring of the baby boomers has placed a lot of stress…
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