Working for the Plan

I wanted a post that wasn't about health care, but it's just in the news a lot now...and, it's what I think about every day.  This story didn't even really mention health care, but I believe it was omitted on purpose.

This New York Times story highlights some interesting dilemmas of an aging workforce.  Employers are becoming slower in "putting out to pasture" their older employees.  With longer life expectancy, it only seems reasonable that people would work longer.  But to what extent?  Even with people living longer, it's hard to see an employee as productive at age 65 as one at age 35.  The last 10 years of life at age 75 will just not be as pleasant as the last 10 years at 55.  Chronic ailments are more common; things "break" more often.  While a thirty-year retirement may not be financially sustainable, can we expect 70-year-olds to be putting in 70-hour-weeks?  Hence these transition plans are springing up to gain from the wisdom of older employees while sparing them the 24-hour work cycle that is now the norm.

But I think there is another factor that hasn't been discussed....health benefits.  Medicare is taking huge budget cuts and the cost of care for the elderly is seriously high.  With nowhere else to go, could these older workers be focused on health benefits?  I have heard many older people say that they only stay on their jobs because of the insurance.  With many employers cutting benefits to part-time and seasonal workers, it seems tenuous to expect many benefits from a quasi-retired position.  

I hope the Millennials are taking notes....