Is There a Fix to Social Security Recurring COLA Underperformance?
This year’s COLA increase could be the highest since 2012, but it’s still disappointing. Social Security’s COLAs are based on the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) which tends to put a pretty strong emphasis on transportation, food, and beverage costs; healthcare costs, however, are not weighted very heavily in this equation, and that’s one of the biggest expenses for retirees. Healthcare cost increases have outpaced Social Security’s COLAs in 33 of the past 35 years. In the attached article, Sean Williams of the Motley Fool wonders if there’s a fix to Social Security’s recurring COLA underperformance. Read article here…
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