Older Workers Pessimistic on Outlook for Medicare, Social Security

Posted by Sarah E. Needleman in the Wall Street Journal Health Blog If you don’t expect to receive Medicare and Social Security benefits by the time you retire, you’ve got plenty of company. We take for granted that Generations X, Y and Z take a pretty dim view of the likelihood those benefits will be around when they cash their last paychecks. But 61% of older workers say they aren’t confident in the government’s ability to provide health coverage even a few years down the road. Fifty-percent say the same about Social Security payments. The pessimistic findings come from a recent analysis of a 2007 survey of 5,000 workers between the ages of 50 and 64 from HR consulting firm Watson Wyatt Worldwide. Who has the least faith in Uncle Sam making good on Medicare and Social Security promises? Wyatt says workers between 50 and 54 years old are much less confident than their older counterparts, as are women in comparison to men.