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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Social Security Administration, which pays out $600 billion a year in benefits to retirees, may have underestimated how a decline in smoking will increase life expectancy, two experts reported on Monday.
Haidong Wang of the University of Washington in Seattle and Samuel Preston of the University of Pennsylvania said their calculations showed that by 2035 a man's odds of surviving from age 50 to age 85 will be 22.5 percent greater than projected, and a woman's odds more than 7 percent greater.
Yesterday’s (dec. 11) Special Report with Brit Hume had good fun with President-elect Barack Obama’s nominations to head-up health reform. After Fred Barnes suggested that universal health coverage would only increase costs, Charles Krauthammer chimed in with his own unique analysis of Obama’s health care plan.
Using smoking cessation programs as an example, Krauthammer explained that while Obama’s focus on preventive care was “a nice thing, it doesn’t save money”:
The biggest preventative healthcare success in American history is the reduction in smoking. What happens instead of dying young if you smoke, you die older, spending years in a nursing home, and the costs end up higher. I’m not in favor of dying young, but it’s more expensive if you live longer. If you die of a heart attack at 50, that’s awful, but it’s cheap. If you live into your 80’s, you will end up with Alzheimer’s or cancer or a chronic disease that’s expensive.
Aw, call me a cynic but I think they're just putting out the articles to pave the way for upping the Social Security retirement age. You will see all kinds of "living longer" articles like this now to justify an age increase for SS benefits.
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Location: home...finally, home .
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I guess we should just be courteous and kick off.
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