Only 15% of U.S. adults believe the country can adequately care for its aging population, and nearly three-quarters (73%) of adults under 65 are concerned that the Medicare program may not exist when they retire. That’s according to findings released this week Gallup.
Partner with healthcare nonprofits western healththe organizations released the 2024 Aging in America Survey report, which is based on data collected through traditional mail and online surveys from November 13, 2023, to January 8, 2024.
Concerns about the solvency of the Medicare program are growing. Nearly three-quarters of respondents worry that they will not be able to receive health insurance when they become eligible, up from 67% in 2022. The growth is most obvious among those aged 10 to 10 years.
But worries about Medicare pale in comparison to the level of concern related to Social Security, with 80% of respondents under 62 and 86% of those aged 40 to 49 worried about it when they start receiving benefits. , health insurance will not exist.
“Medicare and Social Security face significant threats, and there are concerns that policymakers will not do enough to protect and strengthen them,” West Health President Timothy Lash said in the report. “These safety net programs are millions of “They are part of the aging fabric that older Americans depend on, so any potential disruption or question marks surrounding these programs is cause for alarm and deserves more attention and action from policymakers.”
Although demographic trends show the United States is aging faster, most respondents do not believe the U.S. government is prioritizing policy issues that impact care for the elderly.
“When asked in the survey to what extent the government prioritizes issues affecting older Americans, 74 percent said ‘not a lot’ or ‘not at all,'” the results explained. “Of those 65 and older 80% feel this way, and more than half (57%) of Americans say they are “more likely” (37%) or “more likely” (20%) to support making issues affecting older Americans a priority. candidates for public office.
The results show that this sentiment increases with respondent age, and is highest among those aged 65 or older (77%).
An overwhelming majority of respondents also said the United States will not be able to adequately care for its aging population. That sentiment was compounded in 2018 U.S. Census Bureau Data show that by 2034, the number of Americans aged 65 and older will outnumber those under 18 for the first time (77 million to 76.5 million). It would mark the first such event in U.S. history and affect nearly a quarter of the country’s population.
The full survey included a sample of 5,149 adults from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Gallup explained that panelists who were 65 or older “were oversampled to increase the robustness of the results in this population.” Over several weeks in March, we conducted qualitative interviews with initial responses.
