Americans may live longer in the future than current U. S. government projections, and that could mean higher costs than anticipated for Medicare and other programs, researchers reported on Monday.

Members of the MacArthur Research Network on an Aging Society released a report contending that the U. S. Social Security Administration and Census Bureau have misjudged the average American lifespan in 2050 by three to eight years.

By the group's estimates women would to live to be 89 to 94 on average instead of the government's estimate of 83 to 85 years. For men, the group expects they will live to be 83 to 86 in 2050.

S. Jay Olshansky, co-author of the report, said, it will cost us socially and financially.

"I think it sounds reasonable," said Dr Sharon Brangman, chief of geriatrics at SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, N. Y.

Dr Cheryl Phillips, president of the American Geriatrics Society, was wary of promises to fight aging, but she agreed that biomedical technology will increase our lifespan.

But Phillips, Olshansky and Brangman all warn that living longer is not always an ideal situation.

Dr Jack Rowe of Columbia University's School of Public Health and chairman of the MacArthur Research Network said "Can we really afford to have everybody quit work at 65? The work force, education system, the way cities are laid out and the retirement systems were not designed to support an aging society.”