Who’s right on life expectancy, Ron DeSantis or Nikki Haley? Both

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley sparred over whether to raise the Social Security retirement age during a CNN Republican presidential primary debate in Des Moines, Iowa.

Haley said life expectancy is longer today, so the age to start collecting Social Security benefits should be older than the current 65 years old. She said people in or near retirement should be protected from a retirement age increase. But people in their 20s should be told that "we're going to change the retirement age to reflect life expectancy."

DeSantis said he wouldn’t raise the age, citing an erosion in life expectancy over the past few years. 

"The problem now in the last five years is life expectancy is going down," DeSantis said. "So I don't see how you can raise the retirement age when our life expectancy is collapsing in this country."

PolitiFact readers asked us whether U.S. life expectancy is decreasing. We found that both candidates can point to data that supports their position.

Haley is right that life expectancy has risen significantly since Social Security was created in the 1930s.

In 1940, U.S. men had a life expectancy of about 54 years and women 61 years.

By 2021, U.S. men had a life expectancy or 73.5 years and women just above 79 years. 

Despite this, the Social Security retirement age has barely budged. In 1983, a new law phased in an increase to 67 years. (It’s possible to collect benefits earlier, but the amount is discounted.)

DeSantis also is correct that during the past few years, U.S. life expectancy has retreated for the first time in generations. 

Life expectancy decreased in 2020 and 2021. Analysts suggest that the coronavirus pandemic played a major role, as have "diseases of despair" including drug overdoses and suicides.

There also is evidence that the life expectancy of lower-income Americans, who are reliant on Social Security to meet their basic needs, has not increased similarly to higher-income Americans.

Preliminary data for 2022 shows an overall small uptick in life expectancy after two straight years of declines.

While discussing life expectancy Haley called DeSantis hypocritical about his stance on not raising the retirement age. 

"He hasn’t answered the fact that he voted to raise the retirement age to 70, three different times," Haley said. 

As a Florida congressman, DeSantis voted in 2013, 2014 and 2015 for three nonbinding budget proposals that called for raising the retirement age and slowing future Social Security spending. The House didn’t pass the proposals, but even if it had, they would not have become law.

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