We can’t kick this can any further down the street

From Seniorjournal.com:

Senior citizens will be impacted by his leadership in the same way as all Americans on many issues, but will also have a unique set of concerns – primarily involving Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

Year after year seniors are warned that these key programs, known as entitlements, are going broke. Just in the last few days the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid services warned that the trust fund that is the primary source of funding for Medicare will run out of money in 2016 – just seven years from now.

Social Security is expected to take in less money in 2011 than in pays out in benefits and will have to dip into reserves.

The strain on the government and taxpayers is tremendous and will get a whole lot worse. Social Security recently announced a new online enrollment system and said they expect to enroll 10,000 seniors a day for the next 20 years in Social Security and Medicare.

Medicaid, often over-looked, remains the real safety net for millions of older people who run out of money in their old age, often due to health care costs or the necessity of long-term care, which is extremely expensive and not covered by Medicare.