It’s no secret: Life expectancy has soared in recent decades. When the government began the Social Security program in the 1930s, life expectancy sat around 61 years old. Now, it’s almost 80. Should the age at which someone is designated a “senior citizen” be higher? Should the age for senior citizen benefits be raised?
Dr. Robert Murden, a geriatrics physician at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, weighs in on the topic.
“People are healthier. People at age 65 are certainly healthier than they were 30 years ago at age 65,” he says. “People are healthier into their late 60s and early 70s, on average.”
Cleaner air and water, better nutrition and living environments, a decrease in smoking, and an increase in exercise all contribute to greater life expectancy, Murden says. Surprisingly, technological advances haven’t had as great of an im- pact, though routine medical interventions such as treating high blood pressure and high cholesterol have significantly helped as well.
However, the heart and lung systems are physiologically deteriorating at the same rate. So while people are living longer, they still face the negative effects of aging. The average age at which patients need to see a geriatrician has also increased by a few years, but Murden warns against making generalizations around age.
“There are people at 65 who have dementia; they should certainly see a geriatrician,” he says. “(There are also) people in their 70s who have almost no problems (and are) on no medicines who don’t need to see a geriatrician. So there isn’t a clear cutoff.”
Each geriatric practice has different policies on the age requirement of patients, ranging anywhere from 65 to 85. Murden points out that the differences in older adults are much more varied than those in younger people. As an example, most 25-year-olds should be able to do the same physical activities, with a few outliers. Among 65-year-olds, however, some can run marathons while some can’t get out of bed.
“(Older adults are) a much more heterogeneous population,” he says. “That’s one of the reasons it’s harder to make definite cutoffs and hard to make decisions about things like Social Security and Medicare.” As more people are living past 65, more are using programs such as Medicare and Social Security. When the programs were built, they only had to provide 5-10 years of service per person. Now, they provide about 20. Thus, Social Security and Medicare will likely not have enough funds for later generations."
“Some people are very sick at 65,” Murden adds. “So if you moved up Medicare to a later age, they wouldn’t get that advantage.” Right now, Medicare begins for citizens at age 65, and Social Security begins at 62 but doesn’t grant full benefits until you reach a certain age depending on when you were born."
Different organizations have different viewpoints as to what the term “senior citizen” means. Most food chains such as McDonald’s consider seniors to be 50-55, while local restaurants generally consider seniors as 60-65. Both groups of restaurants are still using lower numbers. AARP also uses age 50 as a marking point for older adults.
Taking all this into consideration, it seems that, despite an increase in longevity and health, society and medicine still deem senior citizens to be around the same age.
Sarah Grace Smith is an editorial assistant. Feedback is welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com
