Living longer may not be so good: Henry

Treasury secretary Ken Henry says living longer than you expect may not be a good
thing.
Dr Henry says his recent review of the tax system, released on May 2, raised the
question of whether, and to what extent, ways might be found for people to make
greater private provision against some of the risks associated with older age.
"One of the risks of older age ... is just that you live a bit longer than you
expect to live," Dr Henry told a Committee for Economic Development of Australia
(CEDA) luncheon on Wednesday.
"Sounds like a good thing but it's probably not a good thing if you're destitute.
"It's probably not a good thing if you find that you're living years longer than you
expected, with all of those higher costs of healthcare, and you haven't made
provision for that either."
Dr Henry said there was an important economic and social issue in relation to the
extent that those risks should be provided for privately or publicly.
He was responding to a question about whether there was scope for a loans scheme
such as HECS (Higher Education Contributions Scheme) to be adapted for ageing people
to retrain, re-educate or perhaps cover their substantial end-of-life health costs.
Dr Henry had been talking about issues arising from the federal government's third
Intergenerational Report, released in February.
The report had said Australia's population was expected to grow to 35.9 million in
2050, compared to 22.2 million in 2010.
People aged 65 to 84 were projected to more than double by 2050, and those aged 85
and over to more than quadruple.
Around half of government spending would be directed to health, age-related pensions
and aged care by 2049/50, compared to around a quarter now.
Dr Henry said a key challenge arising from Australia's expanded population would be
the sustainable provision of social and economic infrastructure, including the urban
environment, transport, housing and service delivery networks.
"An even greater challenge would be ensuring environmental sustainability, in which
it has to be ceded we have a poor track record," he said.
"That is not to say that population growth of this magnitude cannot be sustainable -
rather, it is to say that it will test us."



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