Business Roundtable Executives Want to Raise Social Security and Medicare Age

To keep entitlement programs solvent for longer, executives of the Business Roundtable are urging Congress to raise the Social Security and Medicare age eligibility from 67 to 70 as a part of their Social Security Reform and Medicare Modernization Proposals. Those executives also want Congress to adopt means testing for wealthier retirees and want to eliminate the Social Security tax exemption for new state and local workers, known as section 218 of the federal tax code.  That provision results in one our of every four state and local government workers exempt from Social Security payroll taxes, and instead pay into public employee pension plans. 

The executives' proposal is not likely to be popular, but the they contend that older workers can still access subsidized health care through Obamacare, beginning in 2014.  They also predict that 10-15 years from now, we're going to need more of our workers working longer.  

Overall, the CEOs argue that they're looking at options to provide a long-term solution to the unsustainable growth of entitlement spending. 

See Bertha Coombs, Should We Have to Work Until 70? These CEOs Say Yes, NBCNEWS.com, 2013.

Special thanks to David S. Luber (Attorney at law, Florida Probate Attorney Wills and Estates Law Firm) for bringing this article to my attention.