A spokes lady for the health care industry in suggesting corrections to Obama Care pointed out that in 2014 the formula for insurance companies underwriting rates for senior citizen will be lowered from the current 5 to 7 times to 3 times that of individuals under 40. She said that cost considerations justify the higher ratio.
WATCHDOG: This is a similar argument that was and still can be made against Social Security under which payments from the younger people have always been used to subsidize the elderly. But what is seldom if ever mentioned is that Social Security, as would Obama Care alteration, relieves the younger generation of some, if not all, of the responsibilities for taking care of older members of their family. Without the Social Security monthly retirement check, there would be a lot more parents living with their children and grandchildren.
In most cases, they don’t want that and neither do their kids!
When the Social Security system was inaugerated in 1935(?) weren’t the funds to be put in trust until needed? If the trust had been kept intact and not used to balance the budget, does anyone know what the approximate balance of the funds would be today?
I have e-mailed my represenatives and senators but the only answer I get is a general purpose form letter.
EDITOR: Good question. Can’t answer, at least yet. The following from Wikipedia suggests the real concern may lie elsewhere:
Social Security taxes are paid into the Social Security Trust Fund maintained by the U.S. Treasury (technically, the “Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund”, as established by 42 U.S.C. § 401(a)). Current year expenses are paid from current Social Security tax revenues. When revenues exceed expenditures, as they have in most years, the excess is invested in special series, non-marketable U.S. Government bonds, thus the Social Security Trust Fund indirectly finances the federal government’s general purpose deficit spending. In 2007, the cumulative excess of Social Security taxes and interest received over benefits paid out stood at $2.2 trillion.[80] The Trust Fund is regarded by some as an accounting trick which holds no economic significance. Others argue that it has specific legal significance because the Treasury securities it holds are backed by the “full faith and credit” of the U.S. government, which has an obligation to repay its debt.