With the costs of health care (insurance, medical and prescriptions) at the age of 70 with the average age of survival within the next decade is it rational (not moral) to just hand over all assets to trustworthy family member where they just give you access to a bank account using an ATM card funded by the retiree but in their name? 

The issue I see is that average income retirees deplete most of their assets in health care and taxes!  If they have no assets they qualify for more local and government help and it is illegal for emergency rooms to not give surgery without the ability to pay.  http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/05/15/1198/  I think the conventional ways of handling retirement for the middle class is a pipe dream only because I see it happening to my grandmother of 74 who is now in the midst of paying over $600 dollars a month in health care expenses and she is not even sick!  She will soon sell her home and go to live with one of her children.  Won't the health care system just will eat our retirement earnings?