Cleveland Real Estate News

It’s Blog Action Day  and this year they want everyone to focus and post on poverty. Here I wrote about services for the aging and my thoughts have been focused on that for a few days. Few would argue that poverty affects our aging and senior population.

A lot of what gets written about the elderly and poverty has to do with the elderly  who lose pension plan payments and get reduced social security payments when their  spouses die. Usually they are women. Here are some stats from The Senior Journal in 2007:

The nation’s poverty rate declined in 2006 for the first time since George W. Bush became president – 12.6% in 2005 down to 12.3% in 2006. Senior citizens (65 and older), however, saw even a bigger drop – 10.1% in 2005 down to 9.4% last year.

But don’t get too comfortable. This year, The Senior Journal reported this:

Aug. 25, 2008 – The number of seniors citizens (age 65 and older) in the U.S. living in poverty jumped to 3.6 million in 2007, up from 3.4 million in 2006. The percentage of all seniors living in poverty increased from 9.4 percent to 9.7 percent from 2006 to 2007 – an increase the Census Bureau calls “statistically unchanged.”

Another factor that can push seniors into the poverty level is the cost of health care and prescription medication. Since we have a major election going on (did you notice!!) and health care is on our minds with various plans being bantered about, I thought this article  was interesting, even though it’s from eight years ago. Samuel Walker wrote an article on the Mackinac Center site and had this to propose for senior health care:

“….Instead, why not let the elderly set up tax-free medical savings accounts to take care of their prescription drug costs? This program is already available, but is severely restricted by law. Opening this option to everyone wouldn’t just make medical expenses easier to bear—it would lower prices by intensifying competition among drug manufacturers….Medical Savings Accounts would help senior citizens afford prescription drugs without doing damage to America’s ability to produce the best medical care in the world….”

Where do the candidates stand on this issue? The My Barack Obama  site (blog post by someone named Kim) referenced AARP for some facts as well as the campaign’s thoughts on McCain’s position regarding prescription drugs/health care for seniors. Sometimes the UK provides good coverage (maybe because they are removed from the passion) and here is the UK Guardian’s outline of both McCain and Obama’s position on these health care issues. I found it interesting because they also compare their positions to non-U.S. practices. US News & World Report reviews their plans here.

 Internet purchasing of drugs has sky rocketed (not news to any of you, I am sure) and one reason is the reduced cost. Then the FDA et al weigh in on whether or not these drugs are legit, do they contain what they say they contain, are they safe? Regardless of how any of us feels about the issue, medical costs, prescription or otherwise, can easily wipe out savings or monthly pension payments for seniors.

Clearly seniors could use assistance to help them spread their pennies to all needed budget areas. How many of us have time to help? Even for just an hour a week?

In my referenced post above about Transition in Place issues, I mentioned RSVP. Today I had the pleasure of receiving some information from Judith Lozada-DeCrane, Coordinator for RSVP. I asked her about pressing needs for seniors and pressing needs for RSVP.  Judith works in the trenches so she has good insight into this area. Volunteers who are coordinated through organizations like RSVP have back ground checks done on them. Since seniors are a vulnerable population, that is a necessity yes?  Judith stated that “sometimes the budgets in these organizations are so tight that the payments for these background checks falls on the shoulders of the volunteers.”  So that is one of the hidden costs she identified. If you have no time to volunteer your physical self, maybe you could volunteer some money for background checks?

Judith also mentioned a need for drivers, a need that exists in all the organizations she is familiar with that help seniors. Since it is Blog Action Day and the word action  is a focus of the event, it made me think how so many of us, busy or not, could help bring prescriptions or groceries to a neighbor’s house, or volunteer to drive them to the store once a week. Or mow their lawn. The list is limitless. And many seniors don’t have extra pennies to pay someone to do these services. If you have time, why not help out? You could also contact an organization like RSVP to volunteer.

A side benefit (and a big one) to communicating with our neighbors is it increases our sense of community. I know how important that is to me because then I feel like I really belong, like it’s an extension of my family.

I’ve had a strong belief, all my life, that we have a social contract  with each other. I work at being good at putting this into practice, but I really believe we are connected and that this connectedness makes us all stronger. When we practice the principles.

Some of these other issues like how to provide health care for our Nation, specifically seniors, well, we can all weigh in on that. But not many of us can make a direct difference. Except by voting of course. And by speaking out.

By volunteering, even if it’s once a week or twice a month, a direct impact can be made.  Just sayin’   And again, if you know of any other senior service organization looking for volunteers or drivers, please let us know.  Peace Out – 3C

Volunteer with RSVP by calling 216-391-9500

NE Ohio’s Golden Age Center  is also looking for volunteers: 216-231-6500.