##ustrative schedule is that individuals might be allowed to buy in to medicare by paying, say, 90 percent of the average medicare costs for parts a, b, and d once they hit the eea, 60 percent a year later, 30 percent a year later, and only the standard part b and d premiums when they fully qualify for medicare. tying the program conventions together has programmatic value, but these programs are different and one must proceed cautiously. medicare is a health insurance program, and health insurance performs two functions - it mitigates financial loss for households getting treatment, and it permits households to get health treatment in the first place. to the extent that the latter motive is dominant, as it could be for low - income or disabled households, measures to raise the eligibility age could be problematic. for this reason, it would be important to provide a generous schedule of buy - in substitutes for households with low - income or disabled beneficiaries, to encourage greater use of health care in the years before the nra. the subsidies could be offset by surcharges on the premiums for well - off households, who could more easily afford the buy - in. retirement ages the hardest question here is how rapidly to increase the basic retirement age, at which individuals qualify for full benefits under both programs. there are several ways of dealing with the question. i begin with the underlying logic for a rising retirement age. historically most workers contributing to social security have been males. males in my grandparents'generation who were lucky enough to attain age 65 could be expected to live, and collect benefits, for another thirteen years. males in my grandchildren's generation lucky enough to attain age 65 are projected to live another twenty years. had the nra not been raised, this factor alone would have made social security a better deal by almost 60 percent for the younger generation. obviously there have been many other changes in society, the economy, and social security over this time. but, still, it is my guess is that if the designers of social security had known back in the 1930s that postwar life expectancies would increase so significantly, they would have built rising retirement ages into the system. of course, when asked, people do not favor rising retirement ages. but given the various undesirable choices for moving these programs back toward actuarial soundness, a slowly rising retirement age seems far and away the fairest across generations. one standard for how fast to raise the retirement age is

in turn, speeds up income. it also makes financial products and services accessible to a greater number of people, which in turn, enhances financial inclusion. in october last year, the bsp launched the digital payments transformation roadmap. our goal is to shift from a cash - heavy to a cash - light society, where at least half of financial transactions are done digitally. by 2023, our other goal is that at least 70 percent of the adult population should have financial accounts. 1 / 2 bis central bankers'speeches it is worth noting that in the wake of the pandemic, financial transactions coursed through digital platforms instapay and pesonet rose dramatically by 155. 4 percent and 22 percent, respectively, in may 2021 as compared to the same period in 2020. last year, more than eight million electronic money accounts were created. we expect more as the bsp approves the license applications of incoming industry players. the establishment of digital banks will bring about greater efficiency and extend the reach of financial products and services among the unbanked, including msmes. we have also taken steps to allow for more extensive use of qr codes for payments. last april, we extended the payments use case of the qr ph to include person - to - merchants or p2m. compared with using point - of - sales terminals, qr technology presents small merchants with a simpler and more affordable payment facility. the bsp also supports the philippine id system or philsys because this will address the lack of identity documents which is among the most common barriers to account opening. to help us spread the gospel of financial inclusion and digitalization, we recently partnered with our youth, and hopefully, made enthusiastic ambassadors of them. we held our first - ever bsp youth summit last july 9 with the theme, “ ibangon natin ang ekonomiya, i - digital mo na! ” more than 38, 000 registered for this livestream event, which garnered more than 30, 000 views on facebook as of july 21. eleven youth organizations signed statements of support for our digitalization and financial inclusion agenda. this makes me hopeful that our youth — like you, our dear stakeholders — are strong partners in bringing our services closer to the filipino people. as we make our way toward the new economy, we should be able to transform old ways into sustainable, green ones. so, we start within our own backyard. the bsp launched its internal sustainable central banking program,