Putting Our House in Order: A Guide to Social Security & Health Care Reform

Former secretary of state Shultz and Stanford economics professor Shoven offer an agenda to reform Social Security and health care in a useful but abstruse primer meant to clarify some of the most pressing issues in the upcoming election. Shultz and Shoven offer an overly optimistic assessment of the economy's health and warn of the “Iceberg Ahead”: the “staggering projected costs” of Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare. The authors boil the crisis down to the simple fact that, “in demographic terms, we are retiring earlier and living longer.” Government revenues alone cannot meet the needs of the increasing costs of health care, a longer life span and a growing cadre of those retiring at 62. Shultz and Shoven acknowledge that reforms in entitlement programs are notoriously difficult to implement, but “inaction is not an option,” and reforms should have been in place 10 years ago. To keep Social Security and health care from buckling under their prohibitive costs, the authors suggest a series of reforms, chief among them measures to encourage older Americans to continue participating in the labor force. The proposals in this “citizen's guide” are undeniably convincing, yet their presentation might prove too dense and difficult foranyone but the most dedicated political enthusiast. (Apr.)