The Future of Social Security and Medicare -- A Looming Boomer Crisis?

The leading edge of the huge Baby Boomer generation is 10 years from qualifying for social security. Will the income-supporting program still exist or is it headed for a cataclysmic collapse? Are proposals to offer citizen ways to privately invest their social security withholdings a solution benefiting individuals and the government or, in light of the recent stock market decline, is this another pending disaster? And what about Medicare, the old age health insurance program, can the nation afford the added drug benefit now being debated in Congress?

Answers to these and other questions will be forthcoming at a public forum, "The Future of Social Security and Medicare -- Looming Boomer Crisis?" sponsored by UNC Asheville's N.C. Center for Creative Retirement (NCCCR), from 9 to 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 7, in the Owen Conference Center on the UNCA. The Buncombe County Council on Aging is cosponsoring the program.

William H. Haas III, UNCA sociology professor and an expert on the aging of America and its health care policies, will review the history of Social Security and Medicare and explain how the United States has reached this crisis point. Harold Engelman, formerly vice resident and director of auditing for National Life Insurance Co. and a representative of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, will discuss the competing options for rescuing the two programs and adding the drug benefit. The National Committee, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to helping citizen become better informed voters, is supporting this forum.

Opportunity for questions and discussion will include a refreshment break.

The program is free and open to the public. For more information, contact NCCCR office at 828/251-6140.

Media Contacts:

• Tina Schwartz, N.C. Center for Creative Retirement, 828/251-6140
• Jill Yarnall, UNCA Public Information Assistant Director, 828/251-6526