The Rich Are Living Longer and Taking More From Taxpayers
by Ben Steverman at Bloomberg
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-04-24/the-rich-are-living-longer-and-taking-more-from-taxpayers
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Age 100 is now an imaginable goal for young people around the world with good health care. The average woman in Japan is already living to 87. Yet many Americans are dying younger and younger. Based on the latest year of data, the Society of Actuaries last fall dropped its life expectancy estimates for 65-year-olds in the U.S. by six months. The health of middle-aged non-Hispanic white Americans is deteriorating fastest.
The result of these trends, according to a new study, is a widening gap between wealthier and poorer Americans. The richest people in the U.S. aren’t just getting several years of extra life, they’re also reaping a financial reward for their longevity – courtesy of the U.S. taxpayer. These trends will be crucial as the new administration and Congress consider any changes to Social Security, Medicare, and other programs. Even tweaks to these programs, from the retirement age to benefit formulas, could affect the rich and poor very differently.
The researchers, a group of 13 prominent economists and health policy experts 1 , tried to figure out how long Americans can expect to live based on their income, focusing on earnings in midcareer, from 41 to 51, and using Social Security data.
The results are stark. In 1980, a 50-year-old man in the wealthiest fifth of the income distribution could expect to live five years longer than a 50-year-old man in the lowest-income group. By 2010, the gap between them had jumped to 12.7 years.
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