Age Discrimination is Pervasive, Says AARP Chief Public Policy Officer

Social security isn’t going bankrupt, but large fraction of aging Americans are at risk. Age discrimination and caregiving crisis are under-covered stories that audiences care about deeply, policy expert Debra Whitman argues.
by Sonni Efron, National Press Foundation

The pandemic inflamed age discrimination and a caregiving crisis in America, and both issues have been underreported in the media. “Age discrimination … is so pervasive that you don’t even notice it,” Debra Whitman, executive vice president and chief public policy officer of AARP. Just in the few hours before she met with NPF fellows during a program on “Living Longer: The New Age for Aging,” several people told her she “looked good for her age,” Whitman noted. “Which is a compliment. But it’s also a statement that you won’t look good later.” [Video | Transcript]

During the pandemic, “there were conversations about [how] you have to be under a certain age in order to get access to life support. There were conversations about how older people should just sacrifice themselves for the good of the economy and their grandchildren. So the age discrimination issue, I don’t think is getting enough focus” in the media.

Likewise, an invisible army of 41 million Americans – the majority women—are providing 340 billion hours of unpaid care to relatives other than their children, but draw very little media coverage. “If we had to pay them, that would be almost $500 billion,” Whitman said. “And we expect people to do this without hardly any support.” Half of all caregivers are working, and some are millennials, she noted.

Social Security is not “going bankrupt,” and journalists should stop using that term, Whitman said. The correct term is “shortfall.” Without changes to the Social Security system by the year 2035, there will be a shortfall in which tax revenues will only be able to cover 76% of the benefits promised to retirees. But even if nothing is done before then, it won’t be “broke” or “bankrupt,” Whitman noted.

“Now, that would be horrible. Most people can’t afford a 24% cut in their social security checks. There would be riots in the street,” Whitman said. In the past Congress has not allowed such a politically dangerous outcome. “But every time somebody writes that Social Security will be ‘bankrupt,’ people don’t believe in the system … and it undermines solutions that could make the program better.”

The sooner the system is properly funded, the less the national financial pain, Whitman noted. The shortfall can be corrected either by reducing benefits or by increasing taxes, or both. However, most legislation in Congress calls for either one or the other, she said.

Social Security benefits are indexed to inflation, so journalists should expect to report on a hefty cost of living increase that is expected to be announced in October. (The September figure will be averaged with July and August inflation figures and will become official in January.) This will be an important development because one-quarter of the retired population has no other source of income. Moreover, “The average check is only $1,668 per month,” Whitman said. “Half the people get less than that.”

The relief from a cost-of-living increase to Social Security benefits will be limited for many low-income people, because health care costs, especially prescription drug costs, have been rising faster than inflation. Whitman noted that the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act will cap the rate of increase to inflation – a huge benefit.

A large fraction of aging Americans are still retirement-insecure. Only some states have a plan for that. (California is one). The ideal model for retirement security is a “three-legged stool” of social security, a pension and private savings. But most Americans do not have this, and half work for employers that have no mechanism for workers to save for retirement through their paychecks, Whitman said. Ten or more states are now trying to change that. “The states are realizing that if they don’t, they know they’re going to have to pay more for Medicaid more and housing more and food and all of these things,” Whitman noted. “And so it’s good for their workers, it’s actually good for the state.”

The U.S. retirement system ranks about 40th globally, and the United States could learn from other countries. “The programs that we have are creaky,” Whitman said. “They have huge holes in them which rarely get filled…

“We need structural change and we need to take these issues seriously. And they are expensive,” she said.

Speaker: Debra Whitman, Executive Vice President and Chief Public Policy Officer, AARP

This program is sponsored by AARP. NPF is solely responsible for the content.