Aging and Poverty Commentaries
"With more than 300,000 residents age 85 and over, Pennsylvania's senior population is the largest it has ever been, and it is increasing at 10 times the rate of the rest of the population. Yet a proposed cut to the state budget would take away 4 percent of the funding -- $100 million -- for low-income seniors who receive at-home nursing care."
Posted April 9, 2012
"On the other side, most liberals, labor unions and advocacy groups for the elderly oppose any reduction of benefits, such as raising the retirement age, eliminating benefits for the wealthy or creating private accounts. The National Committee to Preserve Social Security & Medicare says these kinds of reforms would dismantle the program and be detrimental to low-income workers, minorities and women."
"Fortunately, there's an easy solution. Rather than curtailing public and private pensions, New York and other states could save millions of workers from impending poverty by creating public pensions for everyone.
While the recession bears some blame for the looming retirement crisis, experts agree that the primary cause is more fundamental: Most workers do not have retirement accounts at work. "
"And what has been the most significant public response to date to that looming crisis of poverty among the elderly? It's been a backlash against the one class of workers that still retains definedbenefit pensions and a measure of retirement security - those who work in the public sector."
"He made it big and has lots of rich friends and plenty of money. When today's elderly people started to work, and the baby boomers started to work, the pay was very low, so even though we worked hard all of our lives our Social Security checks are not high enough to meet today's prices."
"Almost all of those who participate in traditional Medicare, as opposed to managed-care plans, obtain supplemental coverage, either through their retirement packages (about 40 percent); from Medicaid in the case of low-income seniors (about 15 percent); or by purchasing private insurance policies known as Medigap (about 30 percent)."
A new survey by the SCAN Foundation and the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, however, finds that Californians are woefully underprepared for the cost of such services. The survey is a wake-up call to the public, as well as a warning sign to lawmakers who want to pull the plug preemptively on a new federal insurance program for long-term care.
"Every woman regardless of age, ethnicity, race or marital status should ask themselves one question this Mother’s Day: Why is the Republican plan to solve the nation’s debt and deficit crisis going to push me closer to poverty in my older years?"
"As Congress debates the budget, it must remember that the Great Recession wreaked havoc on the American middle class. But it must also focus on the plight of those who were poor even before the recession – and rendered nearly invisible by the economic crisis."
"It would cut food stamps by $127 billion, or 20 percent, over the next 10 years, almost certainly increasing hunger among the poor. It would cut Pell grants for all 9.4 million student recipients next year, removing as many as one million of them from the program altogether. It would remove more than 100,000 low-income children from Head Start, and slash job-training programs for the unemployed desperate to learn new skills."
Posted April 11, 2011
"The plan would condemn millions to the ranks of the uninsured, raise health costs for seniors and renege on the obligation to keep poor children fed."
"The program is neither a debt threat today, nor a deficit buster, defenders argue. It must be underscored that Social Security is an effective antipoverty program. Millions of Americans, especially low-income seniors, depend on these checks. The program needs to be protected."
"The Commodities Supplemental Food Program is a federal nutrition program that provides a monthly 40-pound box of healthy food to low-income seniors in 37 states, more than 34,500 in Pennsylvania. The food for this program is federal commodities food..."
"Then there is the group about which we deficit pandas care most: the poor and working poor. They are at the greatest risk from a fiscal crisis, not merely because of the prospect of losing jobs."
"Because of Social Security, the poverty figure for seniors today is less than 10 percent. Social Security also provides dignified support for millions of widows, widowers, orphans and people with disabilities."
Posted February 28, 2011
"Without Social Security today, nearly half of all Americans aged 65 or older would be poor. With it, fewer than 10 percent live in poverty."
"As a result, the infant mortality rate among participant families is well below the national average, despite their poverty rates -- an outcome that Van Ginkel finds more exciting than playing golf. And so, "I'm going to continue doing this as long as I can do it well," she tells me."
"Irons is one author of a new 'budget blueprint for economic recovery and fiscal responsibility' that would spare low-income and moderate-income families from the 'drastic cuts' and some other austerity measures in the chairmen's plan."
"It would reduce benefits slightly to the middle class in later decades, according to a New York Times analysis, but low-income people would get increased benefits."
Posted November 8, 2010
Posted November 3, 2010
Posted November 1, 2010
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