Aging and Poverty Commentaries
"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
Posted October 20, 2010
Posted October 18, 2010
"The poverty rate for seniors fell last year, from 9.7 percent to 8.9 percent. In 2009, incomes rose for households headed by people 65 and older, while every other age group lost ground, according to Census Bureau figures reported recently in USA Today."
"Third, Social Security lifts retirees from poverty. In 2008, Social Security kept almost 36 percent of older Americans out of poverty. In Kansas, about 37.5 percent of the state’s 65-plus population was kept out of poverty because of Social Security."
"Social Security and Medicare are not broken. They are successful, popular programs that protect America's elderly from poverty. Cutting them would be devastating."
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