A healthy life has a price. We invest in health from before birth all the way to death. It’s expensive.
Medical expenses are relatively small early in life, gradually growing with age and pregnancies, diabetes and cancer.
Social Security retirement benefits start at zero and grow with the amount of labor and money contributed to society. That’s the savings account one cannot touch until requirements are met sometime later in life. Even if early-life medical expenses are mounting, one cannot touch the growing retirement savings account.
So, we basically have three variables: expected age, expected medical costs and expected retirement funds. Are they separate and distinct issues? I suggest not. Maybe each of us should have more control over our medical treatments and, thus, medical expenses and, thus, SS retirement funds.
Why should the government dictate when we can use SS funds? It doesn’t have to be a retirement-only fund. Let’s call it a Healthy Life Account, to be used for major sicknesses, pregnancies, and a healthy retirement.
Now design the HLA: At birth, a newborn is assigned a specified amount. Over the years, he draws from the funds for broken bones, pregnancies, diabetes, etc., or periodically relies on purchased insurance.
As the funds are drawn down, so are retirement funds. Throughout a long, healthy life, one has the continual choice of saving the HLA account for retirement or use it for medical expenses along the way.
Now we get to the question of how much of our HLA to use during the final stage of life. While everyone might have a different final stage, let’s assume it’s at 75-plus. Does the person want to pay exorbitant amounts to extend their life another year? Does he want to pay huge amounts from his HLA to terminate cancer or donate the remainder?
Perhaps he would prefer to bequeath his remaining benefit to others, like a 5-year-old needing a heart transplant to extend that life 70 years.
The point is America needs to reduce medical costs. We do this by making medical expenses more personal and providing personal alternatives. Spend exorbitant amounts to extend life until nature says no more? The answer will vary depending on who is paying.
Dan Petkunas
Valencia
