Originally Posted by
Planetrain
Right now yes.
Any chance the federal government shifts the goal posts and delays Medicare eligibility to 66,67,70 in the future?
Same vein, any chance the federal government moves the goal posts on social security benefits or full retirement age (again)?
pilots are already eligible for retiree medical until Medicare age as long as they retire at 60 with, I think, 10 years of service. If the Medicare age goes past 65, regardless of FAA age, we would have those pilots in our medical pool.
as far as SS, you can still take it at 65, it’s just not the “full” age. But if you are no longer working, what does full age matter? 67 may be more than 65 but 70 is even more. FRA really only matters if you want to both work and collect SS.
Last I saw the SS trust fund will run out of money by 2034ish. At some point before that we will either
1) begin means testing recipients in which case I doubt many of us will see anything
2) eliminate the income cap on SS contributions, in which case all of us will pay a bunch more in taxes or
3) cut benefits to about 70% of their current level. This could be a straight cut across the board, by raising FRA, or something else.
pretty much guaranteed one of those things will happen in the next 10 years, maybe a combination of all 3.