Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Your Health is in Your Hands

Last week, I attended a briefing  co-sponsored by the Alliance for Health Reform and AARP entitled “Boomers Come of Age: Covering Early Retirees and Other 50-64 Year-olds. The briefing stressed the importance of planning for economic security in retirement. AARP’s John Rother noted that adults ages 47-65 are lacking economic security due to the loss of jobs and health insurance coverage. If this is the challenge for Americans in their 50s and 60s, then how much more of a challenge will this be for Americans over 65? 


As we know from the Elder Economic Security Standard™ Index (Elder Index), health care costs significantly affect an elder’s overall budget. The Elder Index demonstrates that health care expenses, despite access to Medicare and with or without additional long-term care needs, can be significant. As shown below, these costs can be overly burdensome for elders living on a fixed income, such as those living on Social Security payments alone. In many cases, elders go without supplemental coverage to Medicare, and thus without vital health care services, due to the high cost of premiums and co-pays according to WOW’s Economic Security & Health Care Reform Resource Guide.  


Casey Lovoy
Elder Economic Security Initiative Intern

1 comment:

Sharon Lovoy said...

This has great facts. Thank you for bringing this information to light.