Millions Of Senior Citizens Can't Afford Basic Living Expenses: Study

More than 9 million older Americans can't pay their bills.

The costs of living -- basic expenses like food, housing, health care and transportation -- are too much for millions of people aged 65 and older to bear, according to a study released Thursday examining the gaps between income and expenses for many older Americans. The report, from the nonprofit group Wider Opportunities for Women, is the first of a planned series that will examine the financial pressures affecting senior citizens.

Amid the weak economy of the past several years, older Americans have been suffering alongside everybody else. The housing crash erased millions of dollars in home equity nationwide and dealt a serious blow to the wealth of many seniors, sending hundreds of thousands of retired Americans back into the workforce to make ends meet.

Meanwhile, health care costs are rising, and more than one in five people over age 50 say they have skipped doctor visits, switched to cheaper medications, or simply avoided certain medications altogether because the expense was too high. The increasing costs of medical care are also likely to offset the modest boost in Social Security that went into effect this January.

For many older Americans, the situation is desperate. Some 3.5 million seniors live in poverty, according to Census figures, but that number rises to about 6.2 million when health care costs are factored in. In 2010, the National Alliance to End Homelessness predicted that homeless rates among the elderly would climb by 33 percent -- or about 14,000 people -- within a decade's time.

Given the sluggish job market and the lack of real wage growth for most workers, the elderly are hardly alone in facing pressing financial concerns. A growing number of Americans of all ages have reported not being able to afford food in the past year, and nearly half of all households in the country are just one financial emergency away from the poverty line.

Comments

[Sunny Mcculley]

09:50 PM on 02/27/2013

I have severe bipolar illness, and am on severely low social security disability. i get 626.00 a month to live on. it is hell. i buy my clothes from goowill. i go without. i am unhappily married. i have no money or other place to live so i suffer in silence i have applied many times for food stamps, medicaid for any help but ss combines what little i get with my husband s social security and im over the income guildlines. i get no help from anyone. it is exhausting to deal with. i know there are alot of poeple in my situation. for 2013 i got 7.00 more in my ssd amount. its insulting. i dont know what to do. this country have forgotten its seniors

[lindaleemeyer]

12:22 PM on 03/01/2013

Divorce your husband and you may both qualify for more assistance since your family income will be lower. You can still live together and be a couple but just not legally married.

[Scott Leland]

10:47 AM on 03/22/2012

Who is responsible for our country's economic problems so severe that Americans that should be retired are having to work full-time?

http://www.flixya.com/blog/3201910/Beautiful-Butterflys

[Nikki cox]

05:27 PM on 03/19/2012

Wrongheaded policies assure growing misery while America's rich never had it so good.Only grassroots activism can change things.

[Crisdean Wulver]

05:09 PM on 03/19/2012

America is coming apart at the seams. Reagan introduced "Trickle Down" Economics over 30 years ago. When is all the prosperity supposed to start trickling down?

It looks more like it's trickling up.

[Clamdip LobsterClaws]

12:28 PM on 03/19/2012

I think you can judge the values of a culture by how well or poorly they treat the young and the elderly. People think its normal in America that the mentally ill, children and the elderly live worse than sewer rats on America's mean streets. It's shameful when we are blessed with so much and we have such hard working people in our country that our elderly and children and mentally ill should suffer in this way. What id it was your mother or grandmother, father or grandfather, child? We can't continue to be so self absorbed and unconscious that we don't see these problems and change our country to allow everyone to live in decency. Good everything. That's what our hard work should have earned us yet its all been frittered away on dumb wars and stolen by our government. The American people deserve to live in dignity. We deserve to have a nation that works for everyone in it. We must end the voracious and greedy policies that continue to impoverish and enslave us. Fight these monsters at every turn . Fight for economic liberty and justice . Fight for our children. Fight for our grannies. Fight! Fight! Fight!

[Lisa Cara]

06:53 PM on 03/05/2012

I sometimes think that what capitalism fails to do, is instill a sense of responsibility to those who lives are affected in it's name.

[Lisa Cara]

07:03 PM on 03/05/2012

But, that is not correct, I know-chewing it over.

[RxRights]

05:29 PM on 03/05/2012

It is truly unconscionable that so many of America’s elders are forced to choose between buying food or filling a prescription. We hear from seniors every day who struggle to afford basic necessities.

Thankfully, there is an affordable alternative to the exorbitant cost of prescriptions in the U.S., and that is drug importation.

For years, Americans have been importing safe, affordable prescription medications from licensed Canadian and other international pharmacies. These pharmacies require a prescription and sell the exact same as the name brand medications as the US, except they are between 50-80 percent cheaper.
EVERYONE should have the right to safe and affordable medications and the right to choose where to purchase them.

RxRights is a national coalition of individuals and organizations dedicated to promoting and protecting American consumer access to sources of safe, affordable prescription drugs. For more information, visit www.RxRights.org.

[hugatree]

12:41 PM on 03/19/2012

Have to say that as a low-income senior, most of my drugs are either provided at a very nominal cost by the drug companies themselves (who provide special programs for the poor) or by my Medicare drug program.

[JohnHopwood2]

06:44 PM on 03/19/2012

I would buy food. Not a hard choice to make. Nothing is worse than hunger. Not even sickness. Most of the overpriced medicine doesn't do any good anyway. I rather die of a heart attack then take blood thinners or whatever. If you have nothing to live for why take medications?

[Lisa Cara]

05:15 PM on 03/05/2012

Ugh, we are united in debt, voluntary or no-divided in wealth, for which we all volunteer.

[Lisa Cara]

04:37 PM on 03/05/2012

If we socialize losses-why can we not socialize gains--this is indeed perplexing-everyone pays for some to benefit is not viable-unless we figure out better cost effective benefits maybe they all should go. No it does not sound good-but it seems in line with the facts as I now understand them.

[Lisa Cara]

04:33 PM on 03/05/2012

Conclusion-There are consequences that are unavoidable however we look at it. That we must bear the brunt of those from our individual behavior is hard to swallow. (why is insurance so popular and profitable?) we must also bear the brunt of all of the combined consequences from the combined behavior is unbearable.

More tornadoes. Natural disasters have got to be draining insurance companies, and will be draining taxpayers.

[Lisa Cara]

03:44 PM on 03/05/2012

My humble perspective:
You would have to be a saint to resist using a credit card or line in a time of perceived need, even if that need arouse out of a (key thought) "temporary set back". Granny never set out to rob you. neither did your unemployed neighbor, nor your recent college grad, or once wistful homeowner. I feel the banks and the government did.

[Lisa Cara]

03:10 PM on 03/05/2012

Money is a problem-we all know it for one reason or another. I have difficulties here-the best I can reason out is that the concept of money is crystal clear to those who manipulate it well. It is a means to an end or to ends.
The love of money is insidious.
We have nebulous ideas here, but we either think, or it is factually true that money is or is not finite.
We think that money equals value for something. Bernanke thinks it is debt.
We think that our balances and statements represent dollars in a physical sense-but know they are not-it is how we get into trouble.

[DavidATolucaLake]

02:48 PM on 03/05/2012

The other side of capitalism. Massive unequal distribution of income.

If I have 6 oranges, and I keep 5 and you get 1, how long do you think you will be able to live on it?

When one side becomes massively wealthy, it is at the expense of others who did without to fund those billions for the one who became rich.

If we had a more equitable wage environment we might not need such massive federal programs like social security and medicare paying for those salaries left them little in retirement savings.

There is a cost for the few accumulating most of the income gains. This is it.

Not all rich people are bad. Thats not the point. But our highly skewed wealth distribution model creates these problems. One person gets $20 billion, while many others are left with little remaining after paying for food/shelter/medicine.

[Lisa Cara]

02:56 PM on 03/05/2012

Excellent points. Robin hood saw much the same-these issues are as old as time I think. The situations and times change but a small few always dominate many others.

I am trying not to think in good and bad terms. you might call this shades of grey, yes it is. It is murky for everyone-the black and white are poles.

Wealth is one; how do you think of wealth? Is it money, assets, goods, land, services? One is actually debt.

[DavidATolucaLake]

05:22 PM on 03/05/2012

Everything is a mindset.

Slavery and abusing women was the norm for thousands of years.

Then the powers that be wake up and decide to live a more decent life.

Im not saying there should not be those with more than others.
But we could still have very wealthy people and without having others with close to nothing.

[imoftenrighttoo]

03:16 PM on 03/05/2012

DavidLTolucaLake said, “When one side becomes massively wealthy, it is at the expense of others who did without to fund those billions for the one who became rich.” I guess we can blame a lot of poverty on Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. It’s good to know that all those quality products and services caused our poverty.

[Lisa Cara]

04:00 PM on 03/05/2012

All those quality products may yet solve the poverty issue-we can discuss issues globally-instantly-I am on my old computer with public wi-fi access. This seems beneficial in allowing me to speak without needing millions from a PAC to do so. I appreciate Bill Gates and admire Steve Jobs.

[Lisa Cara]

04:06 PM on 03/05/2012

I was first and still am, using these things to look for work, retrain myself, use my bootstraps, the fruit is sparse-the resources rich.

[Lisa Cara]

02:37 PM on 03/05/2012

Part of what makes this situation sad to me is, I feel that is all of the safety net programs went away-there would suddenly be multiple times that number forced into unemployment-and not they type who would create jobs either.

[Lisa Cara]

02:45 PM on 03/05/2012

I need to slow down...
"...if all of the safety net..."
"...They are not the types who could create jobs, either."

Yes, grammar and punctuation mean something.

[Lisa Cara]

02:31 PM on 03/05/2012

I hear the complaints-unkindly what people express is that the poor are worthless, the unemployed are lazy, and everyone is out to take from me. Yeah I have felt this way too-what I realize is that there is some truth to everything everyone says-they know it because they have done the same thing-or have been convinced of views heard repeatedly from everyone they have come in contact with while growing up. We accept an opinion as fact when young-and we rarely examine the facts unless our experiences bring it into question. When we refuse to see our facts do not align with the facts we are presented with we feel disoriented and confused.
Contrary to popular belief-the poor and unemployed, the indebted have been extremely profitable for some people who like how you think their worthless.