Personal view on the healthcare side, at least in America, while the old spend 36% compared to 10-15% in every other age category, 10-15% spend is still relatively significant. [1]
In America, the average age of medical bankruptcy is 45 years old, that's not really that old. [2] 17% had to declare bankruptcy or lose their home and 45% of Americans worry a major health event will bankrupt them.
I might personally spend more money if I had a difficult health condition and reasonable healthcare, vs being uninsured and crippled by financial costs. If I live every day in fear of bankruptcy, I'm not very willing to spend money on much of anything I don't "really" need.
Having worked in the government, the pension thing is difficult. They exhibit a J-shaped accrual pattern, where young workers don't get much, and long term workers are difficult to pay for. So the motivation is to burn people out and then get rid of them before the pension costs get to be too much.
They're "supposed" to be funded to an adequate amount to pay for the benefits, yet political pressures and less rigorous accounting standards result in excessive commitments to employees and retirees, but inadequate contributions. In the American gov that has resulted in a lot of attempts at buy-outs, early retirement schemes, and almost anything to get people off the pension payrolls.
Personally, an acceptable result was the employee matched retirement contribution. That worked acceptably from my own experience in the government. Generous ceiling on how much we'll match, and employees who actually use the program are effectively getting a 3-5% pay raise because of contributing. IE: "I put in 5%, and my employer matches my contribution with 5%"
[1] By age chart: https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/indicator/spending/per-c...
In America, the average age of medical bankruptcy is 45 years old, that's not really that old. [2] 17% had to declare bankruptcy or lose their home and 45% of Americans worry a major health event will bankrupt them.
[2] https://www.retireguide.com/retirement-planning/risks/medica...
I might personally spend more money if I had a difficult health condition and reasonable healthcare, vs being uninsured and crippled by financial costs. If I live every day in fear of bankruptcy, I'm not very willing to spend money on much of anything I don't "really" need.
Having worked in the government, the pension thing is difficult. They exhibit a J-shaped accrual pattern, where young workers don't get much, and long term workers are difficult to pay for. So the motivation is to burn people out and then get rid of them before the pension costs get to be too much.
They're "supposed" to be funded to an adequate amount to pay for the benefits, yet political pressures and less rigorous accounting standards result in excessive commitments to employees and retirees, but inadequate contributions. In the American gov that has resulted in a lot of attempts at buy-outs, early retirement schemes, and almost anything to get people off the pension payrolls.
Personally, an acceptable result was the employee matched retirement contribution. That worked acceptably from my own experience in the government. Generous ceiling on how much we'll match, and employees who actually use the program are effectively getting a 3-5% pay raise because of contributing. IE: "I put in 5%, and my employer matches my contribution with 5%"