USA Today:
Cash-strapped older Americans are racking up credit card debt faster than other consumers amid dwindling retirement portfolios and rising medical costs, a study shows.
Bankrate's Guide to Consolidating Your Debt: 25 fascinating facts ...
The Debt Trap - Given a Shovel, Americans Dig Deeper Into Debt ...
Credit Card Debt Elimination and Facts About Debt In America ...
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the last of what used to be middle class americans
One last comment. Surviving relatives are not liable for credit card debt owed by a deceased person. Credit card companies of course know this but they try to convince bereaved relatives that the recently deceased would want the debt paid. Many people, in ignorance and in good faith, fall on this trap and brake their budgets trying to comply. There have been several recent reports on this, so be aware.
Hospitals try the same guilt trip
We can look forward to more older people using plastic in order to survive. President Obama plans to finance half of the cost of the proposed health care reform by reforming, ie. gutting, Medicare and Medicaid. Half of a trillion dollars will have to come from these programs which are, if anything, underfunded - many states, facing deficits, are already cutting services to the poor and the elderly. We are constantly told that continuing to provide for the poor and the elderly is unsustainable without reforming, ie. cutting benefits. When private insurance companies refuse to pay for lifesaving treatments, they are called ghouls. When the government plans to do the same to the old folks and the poor, it is called fiscal responsibility.
Obama could have chosen to cover the uninsured by expanding Medicare, a single payer health care system already in place. This option would have not entailed reinventing the wheel and would have been simple and affordable. It could have been financed entirely by taxes and savings by implementing massive preventive programs to address obesity, nutrition, physical activity, etc. But of course, this plan has never been considered because there is no profit in it for the Health Insurance Industry, which along with the banking industry and the military industrial complex owned the US government , stock and barrel.
They are running up the CC debt because they know the economy will suck next year too
and Obama will bailout the CC companies again
http://www
IF the 65 years olds get into financial trouble, where will their 40 year old unemployed children and their families go to live? Perhaps it may be time to resurrect the communes!
When all prices at the grocery store, drugstore, even thrift stores have doubled, tripled and quadrupled, what the hell else does anyone expect us to do?
Bail out the banks, bail out the auto industry, give in to for-profit health murderers, kiss the butts of big pharma and factory farms, give in to environmental thugs, but whatever you do, don't help the people who worked all their lives for a few years of rest and paid their taxes while they did it.
This sucks.
Is that what they call "old fools"?
:-)
Maybe they aren't "fools" at all. Maybe there's something to be said for "max 'em out, and then check out"! Who's gonna be left holding the bag?
That works really well if you time your death right... if not... you are in a world of hurt.
oh well...jus
No, most of us voted for Obama. Stop trying to belittle older people - we don't lose our brains as we age. Apparently, you do.
While I think this story is accurate, some people put medical expenses on credit cards (especially if they have a lot at one time) simply because it makes it easier to track. Getting a copy of a check, if need be, is quite expensive and a real pain in the neck.
Credit card companies should be barred from ever raising interest rates more than 10% above the initial 'teaser' rate that people signed up for.....if that means that the unemployed & college students will no longer receive offers for 0% interest cards that can go up at any time....GO
silly itolduso this isn't the EU...heck we can't even build a respectable levy.
Sorry, I've been drinking heavily.
This is why costs in our health care system must be addressed first and foremost. When someone is on a fixed income and the practice of both insurance companies and providers push costs to the patient is compounded by the fact that THIS DEMOCARTIC CONGRESS thinks that lowering health care inflation is the same as lowering cost then this situation will only get worse.
Right now it is the democrats that have porked up a bill that if clean can be passed easily, by using a No Tax Public Option with Oversight as the principles. This is exactly why the CBO cannot find any savings in the bill. For so long congress has covered up the true costs of efforts and the people wonder why they do little to actually help people that now really need it.
It still amazes me that when there is a system with One Trillion Dollars of measurable waste that could address 100 Million uninsured today, our congress still cannot get their act together and simply pass a no tax public option bill with oversight.
To pay for the ridiculously priced medication not covered by Medicare part D.
what a shame.
Bankers get bonuses while our elderly struggle in debt losing hearth and home in the end
And when the elderly die owing hundreds of thousands.
This time we must let the bankers go down for robbing us the last time.Let's not save them the coming next time.
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Posted: 07-28-09 12:30 AM