Health
Most US adults worry about future of Medicare, Social Security, Gallup poll finds: ‘Magnitude of concern’
Adults in the U.S. are more worried than ever about whether Medicare and Social Security benefits will be available when they need them.
In response to a Gallup poll released in June, 75% of adults age 65 and younger said they are “worried” or “extremely worried” about lack of Medicare availability, according to a press release.
When it comes to Social Security benefits, 80% of survey respondents said the same.
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Both of those percentages have increased since the last poll in 2022.
The data came from the West Health-Gallup 2024 Survey on Aging in America, which polled 5,149 adults 18 and older between November 2023 and January 2024.
In response to a Gallup poll released last month, 75% of adults 65 and younger said they are “worried” or “extremely worried” about lack of Medicare availability. (iStock)
The older the respondents, the more likely they were to consider Social Security and Medicare important — 87% of adults 65 or older said they were the “highest priority” programs, twice as many compared to those between 18 and 29 years of age, according to the results.
The poll also found that more than half of Americans are “somewhat more likely” or “much more likely” to make voting decisions based on their support of programs that affect older adults — and among adults 65 and older, that figure rises to 77%.
“The overwhelming majority of people do not think the U.S. is doing enough to address the needs of its growing aging population.”
Timothy Lash, president of West Health, a California nonprofit focused on health care and aging that partnered with Gallup to conduct the poll, said the findings showed the “magnitude of concern” people have about aging.
“High and rising concerns over the future viability of Medicare and Social Security and the high cost of health care dominate people’s thinking on aging,” Lash told Fox News Digital via email.
The older the respondents, the more likely they were to consider Social Security and Medicare important, the poll found. (iStock)
“The overwhelming majority of people do not think the U.S. is doing enough to address the needs of its growing aging population.”
By 2034, the U.S. Census Bureau estimates that adults 65 and older will outnumber children under 18 for the first time, he noted.
What can people do?
Those who are concerned should communicate with their policymakers and elected officials, Lash advised.
“A whopping two-thirds of Americans feel the country is not prepared to address the overall needs of its rapidly growing older population, and these concerns may influence who they vote for in upcoming elections,” he said.
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Among increasing concerns over health care affordability and the future of Medicare and Social Security, Lash said, “Americans need to look at who is going to rein in the high cost of health care and protect and strengthen safety net programs for future seniors.”
As the aging population continues to grow, Lash emphasized the importance of addressing their needs and challenges.
“It’s up to all of us to work to reduce the concerns over aging and raise the promise and hope of growing older in America,” he added.
As the aging population continues to grow, an expert emphasized the importance of addressing its needs and challenges. (iStock)
Whitney Stidom, vice president of Medicare Operations at eHealth in Salt Lake City, said she was not surprised by the Gallup poll’s findings.
“As we enter the last few months of the election [season], candidates from both parties should be clear that it’s not only seniors who care about the future of Medicare — younger people care, too,” Stidom told Fox News Digital via email.
“It’s up to all of us to work to reduce the concerns over aging and raise the promise and hope of growing older in America.”
In a March survey by eHealth, 78% of millennials and Gen Xers identified Medicare as a “top-three” voting issue, and 84% said they were willing to contribute more in payroll taxes to ensure its future, according to Stidom.
“We are anticipating unprecedented volatility in the Medicare Advantage marketplace due to continued financial pressures within the entire health care industry, regulatory changes, and the inevitable sticker shock that consumers will see when their plan notices of change arrive in the mail come September’s annual enrollment period,” she said.
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To help avoid cost increases or loss of certain benefits in 2025, Stidom encourages seniors to review their Plan Notice of Change letters carefully as soon as they arrive — and to go over their options with a trusted, licensed adviser.
“Medicare provides a crucial lifeline for over 65 million Americans who depend on this vital program for their health care needs,” the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services told Fox News Digital in a statement. (Getty Images)
“Don’t wait until the last minute to make selections for next year,” she added.
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When contacted by Fox News Digital, a spokesperson for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) provided the following statement.
“Medicare provides a crucial lifeline for over 65 million Americans who depend on this vital program for their health care needs. The Biden-Harris Administration has taken many actions to strengthen Medicare while improving its sustainability, and has proposed enhancements that would extend its solvency while strengthening benefits. CMS is committed to protecting Medicare now and for future generations.”
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Aging is often depicted as a steady decline, but new research suggests that many older adults actually improve over time.
Using more than a decade of data from a large, representative study of older Americans, Yale University researchers found that nearly half of adults 65 and older showed improvement in cognitive function, physical function or both.
The improvements were consistent across the study population, and were linked to the participants’ mindset about aging, according to a press release.
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“In contrast to a predominant belief or stereotype that age is a time of continuous and inevitable decline, we found evidence that a meaningful number of older persons actually show improvement over 12 years in cognitive and/or physical health,” lead author Becca Levy, a professor of social and behavioral sciences at Yale, told Fox News Digital.
The research, which was published in the journal Geriatrics, relied on data from the Health and Retirement Study, a federally supported, long-running survey of older Americans.
The results were consistent across the study population, rather than being limited to a small group of high performers. (iStock)
Researchers tracked changes in cognition using global performance tests and measured physical function based on walking speed, which was seen as a “vital sign” because of its strong links to disability, hospitalization and mortality.
Over a 12-year period, 45% of participants improved either mentally or physically. About 32% showed cognitive gains, while 28% improved physically, according to the study.
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“If you average everyone together, you see decline,” Levy said. “But when you look at individual trajectories, you uncover a very different story. A meaningful percentage of the older participants … got better.”
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A participant’s beliefs about aging appeared to influence the results, as those with more positive age beliefs were significantly more likely to show improvements in both cognition and walking speed.
Over a 12-year period, 45% of participants improved either mentally or physically, researchers found. (iStock)
This remained true even after accounting for factors such as age, sex, education, chronic disease, depression and the length of follow-up. Improvements were seen even among participants who started with “normal” levels of function, not just those recovering from injuries or illness.
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“Individuals who have taken in more positive age beliefs … tend to have a lower stress response and lower stress biomarkers,” Levy said. Because age beliefs are modifiable, she noted, there could be a capacity for improvements later in life.
The study did have some limitations, the researchers acknowledged. It didn’t look at how muscles or brain cells change and adapt, which could help explain why people improved.
“Individuals who have taken in more positive age beliefs … tend to have a lower stress response and lower stress biomarkers,” the researcher said. (iStock)
Future studies should examine improvement patterns for other types of cognition, such as spatial memory, they added.
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“In addition, although our participants were drawn from a nationally representative sample, it would be useful to examine patterns of improvement in additional cohorts that have a greater representation of different ethnic minority groups,” the researchers noted in the study.
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The authors said they hope the findings will debunk the myth that continuous physical and cognitive decline is inevitable.
“We found evidence that there could be psychological pathways, behavioral pathways and physiological pathways [by which age beliefs impact health],” said Levy. “It’s common, and it should be included in our understanding of the aging process.”
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Scientists and physicians agree that there’s been a general decline in male fertility — but they aren’t sure why.
Social media buzz has pointed to a few environmental exposures as potential factors, including cellphones and electric vehicles.
But the reality is “more complicated” than that, according to experts who recently spoke to National Geographic.
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Although it’s not clear whether the decline is at a stage where it should be considered a crisis, numbers show that overall fertility — demographically measured by the number of babies born compared to women of child-bearing age — has decreased.
Scientists and physicians agree that there’s been a general decline in male fertility. (iStock)
Dr. Alex Robles of the Columbia University Fertility Center in New York confirmed that clinical practitioners are “certainly seeing more couples where the male factor contributes to infertility.”
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“At least one-third of couples we evaluate have some male component,” he told Fox News Digital.
A 2017 meta-analysis published in Oxford Journals: Human Reproduction Update found that sperm counts in Western countries have declined by almost 60% globally since 1973. The 2023 update confirmed these same results.
Urologists can track declining fertility in sperm quality, while demographic data uses the number of babies born compared to women of child-bearing age as a benchmark, according to National Geographic. (iStock)
Lead study author and epidemiologist Hagai Levine warned that this trend could lead to human extinction if it isn’t addressed.
“This is the canary in the coal mine,” Levine, public health physician at the Hebrew University-Hadassah Braun School of Public Health, told National Geographic. “It signifies that something is very wrong with our current environment, as lower sperm counts predict morbidity and mortality.”
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These findings have been contradicted by other studies, however. A 2025 Cleveland Clinic analysis of studies from the last 53 years found sperm counts to be steady.
“There is no evidence to suggest that this decline is the cause of a precipitous decline in the ability to cause pregnancies,” primary study author Scott Lundy, a reproductive urologist at Cleveland Clinic, told National Geographic. “Most men, even with a modest decline in sperm counts, will still have no issues conceiving.”
Potential factors of decline
Multiple lifestyle factors can lead to a decline in male fertility, Robles noted, including obesity, smoking and diet, as well as environmental exposures and delayed parenthood.
National Geographic also reported that heavy drinking and marijuana use directly contribute to declining fertility and that quitting these habits, while also exercising and losing weight, can help.
Smoking of any kind can contribute to a decline in fertility, according to experts. (iStock)
Systemic inflammation, infection and disease can also have a “big, profound effect on the current status of fertility,” Lundy told National Geographic.
Those who are getting over a fever from an infection, like the flu or COVID, will have a “drastically lower” sperm count for three months, he said.
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Male infertility can also be a marker of overall health, according to Robles. “Poor semen parameters are associated with other medical conditions and may signal underlying metabolic, hormonal or environmental issues,” he told Fox News Digital.
Experts recommend seeing a doctor to discuss fertility concerns instead of relying on the internet. (iStock)
Allan Pacey, deputy dean of the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health at the University of Manchester, told National Geographic that the decline could be caused by increased use of contraception, as well as men waiting longer to have children or choosing not to have them at all.
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Microplastics have also been raised on social media as a potential culprit, but the effects are unclear, according to experts.
There is some evidence of endocrine-disrupting chemicals — which are substances found in reusable plastics and some disposable products — altering male fertility, Lundy revealed to National Geographic.
Myths busted
Concerns have circulated on social media that keeping a cellphone in a front pocket could harm male fertility. While Lundy said such an effect is biologically possible, there is currently no scientific evidence supporting the claim.
Another common myth is that infertility is mostly a women’s issue, Robles noted, but male factors contribute to about one-third to one-half of all cases.
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The claim that taking supplements can boost sperm counts is another common myth, he said, adding that it’s not backed by strong scientific evidence.
“Men should focus on factors that we know matter: maintaining a healthy weight, avoiding tobacco, limiting alcohol and managing chronic health conditions,” Robles advised.
One common myth is that infertility is mostly a women’s issue, but male factors contribute to about one-third to one-half of all cases. (iStock)
Experts recommend seeing a urologist to address fertility concerns. Robles said his approach begins with an evaluation, semen analysis, hormonal testing and medical history, while also exploring lifestyle factors.
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In addition to traditional treatment options, Robles said his fertility center also uses advanced tools that incorporate AI and robotics.
“Technologies like this are expanding options for patients who previously had very limited paths to biological parenthood,” he said.
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