Dr Oz claims Americans should delay their retirement by a year to boost US economy
He believes that it will help the country deal with its national debt problem.
Feb. 13 2026, Published 10:28 a.m. ET
The solution to America’s national debt problem could be solved if Americans simply worked a year longer than the average age of retirement these days. That is what Mehmet Oz, administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, recently suggested. Currently, the average ages of retirement in America for men and women are 62.6 and 64.6, respectively. Dr. Oz argues that since Social Security kicks in at 65, it only makes sense for people to work until or at least closer to that age.
"Medicare doesn't hit you until age 65, so they [Americans] are retiring before they get Medicare benefits, before Social Security kicks in. If we could get the average American—because they feel healthy, they're vital, they're strong [and] have agency over their future—to start working a year earlier out of high school or work a year later before they retire ... it would generate $3 trillion to the U.S. economy,” he said.
That figure is disputable, but critics believe that making older people work an extra year would not do much to help the economy or reduce the national debt, as productivity would also decline. "If you’re adding workers whose productivity is falling [because they're older] and not fully employing younger people, you’re not gaining productivity," said Teresa Ghilarducci, an economics professor at the New School, as per Investopedia.
The report also states that while the average retirement age in America has increased, thanks to increased life expectancy, 54% of people retire earlier due to employment-related reasons, and 31% do so due to health-related reasons. People also do not want to work for longer unless they are incentivized to do so. "The gains to date in working longer have been great, but we probably have gone as far as we can go without some new development to change people’s incentives," Alicia Munnell, a senior advisor at the CRR, had noted.
While Dr. Oz’s statement was controversial, it was outdone by Tesla boss Elon Musk. Earlier this year, the tech mogul said that there was no need for people to save up for retirement due to AI. Musk said that robots would supercharge productivity, which would reduce prices everywhere, leaving everyone with a high income. “One side recommendation I have is: Don’t worry about squirreling money away for retirement in 10 or 20 years. It won’t matter,” he said.
He also said that the advances in AI will translate into "better medical care than anyone has today" in the next five years. "No scarcity of goods and services. You can learn anything you want about anything for free," the Tesla boss added. However, he warned that it would be a "bumpy transition" into this utopian world, marked by a series of jarring changes and social unrest.
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