Letter: Balancing Social Security, Medicare

While I don't dispute the facts presented in the op-ed "Feeling entitled" [Aug. 21], I think many readers will get the mistaken idea that Medicare and Social Security are similar programs, that they suffer from similar funding problems, and that there is no difference in the degree of the erroneous assumptions working people make when they calculate what they are "owed" by these programs.

For example, as a lifelong compulsive record-keeper, I recently decided to go back into my tax records and, using parameters similar to those provided in this article, attempted to discover the truth of the matter, at least as it applies to my particular situation. I have worked since 1965; I paid the maximum Social Security contribution for many of the most recent years. My calculation showed that, assuming I live to be 90 years old, my actual Social Security benefit is about $50 per month short of what it would have been had I handled these funds on my own. I understand that this is not true for all Social Security recipients, and that, in essence, that $50 is funding their benefit (personally, I have no problem with this).

On the other hand, as I scoured my old records, I was struck with how comparatively low my contribution for Medicare has been through my working years. It is inarguably true that the benefits paid out by Medicare are vastly higher than the "premiums" paid into it. This is indeed an important crisis that must be attended to.

Ironically, "Feeling entitled" perpetuates the very brand of bad information that it criticizes. The problems in these two programs are only remotely similar. The "fix" for Social Security is fairly simple, and hardly worth the alarm it generates. Medicare, on the other hand, is a catastrophe in the making. Its "fix" will be very tough for most Americans because almost any method of repair is going to be perceived as unfair by a large portion of the population.

Richard H. Morse, Eastport