Medicare Doomed by Baby Boomers

Data suggests that Medicare may be doomed by baby boomers

This year starts the beginning of retirement at the age of 65 for the first group of what are referred to as the baby boomers, born between 1946 and 1964. This group of some 76 million will begin to place a massive drain on the already struggling Medicare system in the U.S. over the coming decades.

Fears now are that the group will eventually break the system entirely. Currently about half a trillion dollars is spent annually on the 46 million people currently covered by the Medicare program. That number of people is expected to nearly double in just twenty years. In contrast, because of the surge in population created by the generation, there will be less people to support the growing group.

Much like social security, the Medicare system was designed so that the working generations of today would support the retirees of yesterday. Unfortunately there will be a smaller percentage of a working population trying to support this larger group of retirees. According to government figures, currently there are about 3.5 people working to support each person currently on Medicare. At the peak of the baby boomer retirement, however, that number will drop to 2.3.

Coupled with rapidly rising health costs, barring a massive fix by the government, the system may be doomed.