[[{“type”:“media”,“view_mode”:“media_large”,“fid”:null,“attributes”:{“class”:“media-image alignright size-full wp-image-1606”,“typeof”:“foaf:Image”,“style”:“”,“width”:“100”,“height”:“100”,“title”:“”,“alt”:“New York Times”}}]]In an opinion piece in The New York Times, Samir S. Soneji, assistant professor at The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, and his coauthor warn that a new “cliff” is looming for the United States, and that the federal government isn’t doing all it should to prepare for the crisis.

What is not common knowledge, they write, is “that the Social Security Administration underestimates how long Americans will live and how much the trust funds will need to pay out—to the tune of $800 billion by 2031, more than the current annual defense budget—and that the trust funds will run out, if nothing is done, two years earlier than the government has predicted.”

The authors offer two suggestions for saving Social Security: One is to keep raising the age at which people become eligible for full retirement.

Read the full opinion piece, published 1/5/13 in The New York Times.