USA: Will Americans Be Healthy Enough To Work Longer?

. CHESTNUT HILL, MA (Center for Retirement Research), August 28, 2008: If Americans continue to retire at age 63, a great many will risk income shortfalls especially at older ages. Because work directly increases current income, Social Security benefits, retirement saving, and decreases the length of retirement, a logical solution would be to increase the age of retirement. But are Americans healthy enough to work longer? This is the subject of recent research by Alicia H. Munnell, Director of the Center for Retirement Research (CRR) at Boston College, Mauricio Soto, a research economist at the CRR, and Alex Golub-Sass, a research associate at the CRR. Using the National Health Interview Survey, this paper shows that healthy life expectancy increased by about three years over 1970-2000 for the average 50-year old man. This increase is largely the result of men moving up the education ladder, with minimal increases within educational groups. Moreover, major disparities in healthy life expectancy remain between those in the bottom and top quartiles of the population. And these disparities mean that a vulnerable portion of the population – perhaps those who most need to work longer – might not be able to extend their work lives. Healthy life expectancy may not continue to improve in the future, given that the percent of men graduating from high school and from college appears to have leveled off and obesity may slow or reverse health gains. Click to read more Source: Global Action on Aging © 2008, by Alicia H. Munnell, Mauricio Soto, and Alex Golub-Sass.