At the rate we're going, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid will consume almost the entire federal budget by 2050, says About.com.

That's the LTC irony. The more we spend now while most boomers are still working in the productive economy and paying taxes, the faster we'll run out of benefits later when aging boomers need them.

And the more individually responsible older boomers will be for their own retirement income, acute care and long-term care security.

Read the following news item and see if it doesn't sound familiar. We've been beating the same drum all year on the Center for Long-Term Care Reform's 2008 National Long-Term Care Consciousness Tour.

Bottom line: the less attention government gives to controlling the current hemorrhage in federal entitlement programs, the faster the long-term care insurance market will expand.

That's always been true.

But what's different now is this: the end game is finally upon us. Boomers will be taking out instead of paying into these already-bankrupt public programs.

The immediate future looks scary, but the mid-range future promises a turn toward personal responsibility. Private savings, investment, annuities and insurance will replace the social safety net for middle class and affluent Americans.

Our goal now should be to preserve enough of the social safety net to protect the truly needy. The rest of us are on our own.

LESS GOVERNMENT, MUCH LESS GOVERNMENT

Social Security and Medicare alone currently have a combined unfunded liability of $101.7 trillion, according to the 2008 Social Security and Medicare Trustees Report. The unfunded liability is the difference between total benefits to be paid, and the total projected collections in taxes and Medicare premiums. That $101.7 trillion unfunded liability is more than seven times the size of the U.S. economy and 10 times more than the national debt. Can anything be done, asks About.com?

According to the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA), without raising taxes or massive reform of entitlement spending programs:

o By 2010, the federal government will stop doing 1 in 10 things it's doing now.

o By 2020, the federal government will stop doing 1 in 4 things it's doing now.

o By 2030, the federal government will stop performing half of the services it provides.

o By 2050, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid will consume nearly the entire federal budget.

o By 2082, Medicare spending alone will consume nearly the entire federal budget.

How should you prepare to deal with this possibility of life with much less government? Addison Wiggin, coauthor of the suddenly popular book-turned-movie I.O.U.S.A. suggests, "For their part, individuals need to save more, invest wisely, expect less from the government, and be willing to pay for the services they do expect."

Source: Robert Longley, "Less Government, Much Less Government," About.com, Tuesday November 11, 2008

For text:

http://usgovinfo.about.com/b/2008/11/11/less-government-much-less-government.htm

For NCPA study:

http://www.ncpa.org/pub/st/st315/st315.pdf