Today’s Indianapolis Star reports that Social Security can pay full benefits until 2041, according to the latest report by the plan’s trustees. By then, the baby boomers will have begun dying off. Even after that, the system would be able to pay benefits which, in real terms, are larger than they are today, according to economist Mark Weisbrot, who co-authored the 1999 book, “Social Security: The Phony Crisis.”
With the system sufficiently financed to fund more than three decades of benefits, there’s no near-term “crisis” to address.
But this has been the story that won’t die. “The fact is, everyone thinks it’s a crisis,” says Dean Baker, Weisbrot’s co-author. Baker says Clinton’s position is “encouraging, because it’s true. Also, because of where it indicates she will go in policy.” See Full Article Here:

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Social Security benefits will increase 2.3% next year, administrators said Wednesday. The cost-of-living adjustment, beginning in January, impacts Social Security benefits received by almost 50 million Americans.
The estimated average monthly Social Security benefit payable to all retired workers will be $1,079 after the adjustment compared with $1,055 before. For a couple both receiving benefits, the level will rise to $1,761 from $1,722. For a widower, the benefit will rise to $1,041 from $1,017, on average. See full story here:

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The number of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans seeking treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder from the Department of Veterans Affairs jumped by nearly 20,000 — almost 70% — in the 12 months ending June 30, VA records show.

USA Today reports that more than 100,000 combat veterans sought help for mental illness since the start of the war in Afghanistan in 2001, about one in seven of those who have left active duty since then, according to VA records collected through June. Almost half of those were PTSD cases.

The numbers do not include thousands treated at storefront Vet Centers operated by the department across the country. Nor do they include active-duty personnel diagnosed with the disorder or former servicemembers who have not sought VA treatment. See full article here:

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Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue said the agency is bracing for some 80 million Americans to apply for retirement benefits over the next two decades.

“We are already feeling enormous pressure from baby boomers being in their peak disability years and now we’re preparing for so many of them to file for retirement,” Astrue said at a press conference with [Kathleen] Casey-Kirschling [the first Baby Boomer collecting--yes, they held a press conference to note this momentous occasion].

Social Security, which referred to the looming crisis as a “silver tsunami,” is facing enormous financial pressures from the generation born in the aftermath of World War Two. The latest report by the program’s trustees said by 2017, Social Security will begin to pay more benefits than it receives in taxes. By 2041, the trust fund is projected to be exhausted.

“There is no reason to have any immediate panic,” Astrue said. “I and most people who are really familiar with the situation are confident that there will be some pain along the way, but we will get there and Social Security will be there for future generations.” Article here:

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More than 90,000 Americans get potentially deadly infections each year from a drug-resistant staph “superbug,” the government reported in its first overall estimate of invasive disease caused by the germ.

The overall incidence rate was about 32 invasive infections per 100,000 people. That’s an “astounding” figure, said an editorial in Wednesday’s Journal of the American Medical Association, which published the study.
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Today’s New York Times features an interesting article about new research in Diabetes:

“An explosion of new research is vastly changing scientists’ understanding of diabetes and giving new clues about how to attack it. The fifth leading killer of Americans, with 73,000 deaths a year, diabetes is a disease in which the body’s failure to regulate glucose, or blood sugar, can lead to serious and even fatal complications. Until very recently, the regulation of glucose — how much sugar is present in a person’s blood, how much is taken up by cells for fuel, and how much is released from energy stores — was regarded as a conversation between a few key players: the pancreas, the liver, muscle and fat…”
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The Los Angeles Times features a story with information on planning for disability, almost always an unexpected event:

Sherry Sherman was on an empty two-lane highway in 2002 as she returned from a job interview. The last thing she remembers was leaning over to change a CD. Days later, she woke up in the hospital with a broken spine.

Sherman, then single and healthy, had never considered the possibility of being disabled. But nine weeks of hospitalization ate up her savings…

Roughly 3 in 10 workers will have an injury or illness at some point during their careers that keeps them out of work for three months or more, according to the Council for Disability Awareness. And 1 in 7 can expect to be disabled for five years or more.

“Disability among the American workforce is on the rise,” said Robert Taylor, president of the council, a nonprofit funded by disability insurers. “But the working population is not prepared and not preparing.”

How do you prepare? First, look at your own situation. Do you have a working spouse who could support both of you if one of you were to become disabled? How much sick pay are you entitled to? How much vacation time do you have coming?

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A memo obtained by the El Paso Times shows that the VA instructs the department’s employees to put “Operation Enduring Freedom” and “Operation Iraqi Freedom” veterans at the head of the line when processing claims for medical treatment, vocational rehabilitation, employment and education benefits.

Veterans Affairs officials say prioritizing war-on-terror veterans is necessary because many of them face serious health challenges. But they don’t agree that other veterans will suffer, saying that they are hiring thousands of new employees, finding ways to train them more quickly and streamlining the process of moving troops from active duty to veteran status.

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More than in past wars, many wounded troops are coming home alive from the Middle East. That’s a triumph for military medicine. But they often return hobbled by prolonged physical and mental injuries from homemade bombs and the unremitting anxiety of fighting a hidden enemy along blurred battle lines. Treatment, recovery and retraining often can’t be assured quickly or cheaply.

These troops are just starting to seek help in large numbers, more than 185,000 so far. But the cost of their benefits is already testing resources set aside by government and threatening the future of these wounded veterans for decades to come, say economists and veterans’ groups. Most are also eligible for Social Security Disability payments if they have ever worked and paid taxes outside the military setting.

“The wounded and their families no longer trust that the government will take care of them the way they thought they’d be taken care of,” says veterans advocate Mary Ellen Salzano.

How does a war veteran expect to be treated? “As a hero,” she says. See Full story here:

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