SS and MCR should be offered to seniors only age 70+ that have a combined income under $45k.
Problem solved.
That would not solve the medicare problem. The overwhelming number of workers who have healthcare coverage now will suddenly find themselves without healthcare insurance upon retirement. This whole generation has come to rely upon medicare for health insurance in the retirement years, irrespective of income status.
Of course, most retirees don’t have an income of $45,000 per year, either, so I’m not sure how many beneficiaries would be weeded out by your proposal anyway.
The two programs would instantly become "welfare" in the classic definition of the term. Many millions of taxpayers who funded the programs all their working lives would have been robbed of the money put into them.
Myself, I shall file for SS and MCR the instant I become elligible, regardless of how much money I'm making otherwise. I've been paying in to them for almost 40 years, after all.
Problem solved.
I sense your post was written with tongue-half-in-cheek, but in reality, this is how it _will_ be done, when the issues are finally addressed.
By then, it will be too late for ANYthing else to work. There will be no other choices.
The "fix" for Social Security will eventually be means-testing (along with reduced benefits and higher taxes).
Similarly, the fix for Medicare will be means-testing and care-rationing, the latter patterned after the "Oregon System" of triage.
- John
That won’t go over well with all of us that are paying medicare taxes now.
Spoken like a true socialist.