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News for Baby Boomers
Family Group Leader Sees Boomers, Longevity,
Financial Bind, Health Care as Top Issues
Economic self-sufficiency - no government assistance
- is increasingly more difficult – says new AAFCS president in Q&A
 Aug. 3, 2007 - University of Maryland professor
Bonnie Braun is the newly elected president of the American Association
of Family & Consumer Sciences (AAFCS), a national, 8000-member
professional organization that works to improve the quality of
individual and family life. In this interview Braun discusses family
issues she thinks will be important in the coming decade and thoughts
about policies that will be needed to help families.
Braun, a faculty member of Maryland’s family
science department, is a nationally recognized researcher on low-income
and rural families, family policy, and welfare reform.
Q: Looking ahead in the next decade, what are
the major challenges American families will face?
One major challenge for society and for individual
families will be the aging baby boomers. In the coming decade,
the largest population cohort will move into the traditional retirement
years, as parents of boomers pass and boomers retire. It will be the
largest transfer of family wealth ever, which could be a boon if managed
well.
At the same time, the coming decade will place
demands on the human and financial resources of families. With increased
life spans, families, traditionally relied on by society to “take care
of their own,” will face challenges of physical, mental and emotional
care of multiple generations trying to make ends meet in an increasingly
global economy.
Another is the increasing economic divide between
those who have adequate resources to meet their basic needs and those
who do not. How both individual families and our society respond to this
challenge will have ramifications for generations to come. Having the
human capital, health, education, skills to be productive workers and
contributing citizens challenges both the family economy and the
nation’s economy.
Still another challenge for both those families
directly affected, and for society, is supporting military families. As
a recent study demonstrates, families pay a high price in terms of child
well-being as those not deployed struggle to cope with the challenge of
extended absences. And when military members return with mental and
physical health problems the impact on families and even communities
often exceeds their ability to cope in the short and long-term. To
maintain a strong military requires maintenance of strong families.
The challenge ahead lies at the intersection of
health and wealth.
Research demonstrates that mental and physical
health affect the ability to earn and to make sound decisions as well as
the ability to pay for preventative or remedial health care.
Unfortunately, research also shows that many individuals and families
aren’t as financially literate as they need to be to make sound
decisions. Also, many members of families are not physically and/or
mentally healthy which increases demands on other family members. This
lack of financial and personal well-being affects the abilities of
families to met changing economic conditions in both the short and
long-run.
Q: What are some policies that could help with
these issues and who should be responsible?
There are a number of policies that need to be
addressed. Our association is working with many non-profit associations
and segments of government to require financial literacy education as
part of high school graduation. But adults also need continuing
education, such as Cooperative Extension offers, to continue to learn
and adapt to changing economic conditions. That work needs support and
expansion.
Availability of, access to, and affordability of
pharmaceuticals are key to health beyond basic health practices. With
the demand for drugs rising to address increasing health problems,
families will find their finances stretched and the nation will be
challenged to maintain adequate supplies to meet demands. Government
agencies, working with business and the non-profit sector, need to find
ways to fortify the health of citizens, employees and the children of
this nation.
Emphasis on good health will benefit younger people
and the boomers permitting them to live better in the years
ahead. Providing adequate health care to injured warriors and their
families is key to retention of a volunteer military. Making sure that
low-income families have access to preventative care will help prevent
higher future costs. Assuring that catastrophic illness or injury
doesn’t result in bankruptcy or lack of care and that mental health care
is not stigmatized could go a long way to off-setting these challenges.
The healthier individuals are, the more likely they are to maintain
healthy families.
To measure how well we’re doing as a society in
achieving well-being, we need a standardized measure, equivalent to the
Gross National Product, that would permit monitoring of progress.
Members of our Association are working on such a measure. We’re seeking
other non-profit associations and foundations interested in helping us
to launch an annual quality of living index.
Q: What’s the state of the rural family and what
are some of their most difficult problems?
Rural families constitute about 20 percent of the
nation’s population. The lack of economic opportunities is a fundamental
problem for both long-time and new rural families. Rural communities are
becoming increasingly diverse demographically due to migration from
other countries and urban areas. These population changes bring a new
set of challenges and opportunities to many communities often poorly
prepared to handle change. Along with depressed local economies come
struggles to provide quality education, basic services and connections
to the global economy via the Internet.
Jobs in rural areas don’t generally pay well. Many
are in the service industry and/or are seasonal in nature. Travel for
employment is getting increasingly costly and contributes to energy
consumption and affects the environment. The hope that the Internet
would permit people to raise families and work in rural areas is only
partially filled, because many rural areas lack high speed access, which
inhibits both business and consumption of web-based education, goods and
services.
Rural families also exhibit poorer health than the
majority of Americans. For one thing, they don’t have easy access to
dentists, pharmacists, and specialty medical care.
Since food is fundamental to health, my colleagues
and I study food security of rural families. Basically, many rural
families don’t have enough food to stay healthy. The USDA standardized
food security questionnaire measures the extent to which a household has
access at all times to enough food to meet nutritional requirements to
live a healthy life. Unfortunately, rural families exceed the nation’s
average in food insecurity. Our studies show the connection between lack
of food and depression, a pervasive condition, frequently accompanied by
physical health problems, among many low-income families.
Q: If you could ask the presidential candidates
one question about their stand on a family issue, what would it be and
why?
I’d ask why we continue to delay action on
provision of affordable health insurance not tied to place of
employment. When the health of our students, our workforce, and our
military is less than optimal, the productivity and economic security of
individuals, families and our nation are threatened. When preventive
care isn’t provided or accessible, the cost is just deferred and
increased. That cost is becoming unbearable, to families and the nation.
The rise in bankruptcies among the middle class is attributed to
unexpected health care costs.
Q: What changes do you think need to be made to
family welfare?
From my research, it’s clear that the national goal
of economic self-sufficiency, living without government assistance, is
becoming increasingly more difficult. Welfare reform of 1996
concentrated on cash assistance to families in temporary need of
assistance and is limited to the number of months cash can be accessed.
That federal legislation placed an emphasis on getting a job thought to
be the route to economic self-sufficiency.
Our research demonstrates that, at least among the
rural families we studied, just getting a job isn’t adequate. A
combination of supports are needed: health care, child care, child
support, transportation and the skill sets for locally available jobs.
Getting that package together and sustained long enough for mothers to
become economically self-sufficient will require changes in how our
current public assistance is structured. But most basic of all is
availability and accessibility to jobs that pay living wages. For those
mothers in our study, having an education that provided the skills, when
matched with employment opportunities, increased the likelihood they
would be in the workforce and decrease use of public assistance.
I should note that for the families in our studies,
government assistance was assistance of the last resort. The independent
spirit is strong in rural America. Most prefer to get by on their own,
with family help, and occasionally through community assistance. They
don’t want to reveal that times are tough economically so often do
without. In these cases, the elderly and the children, in addition to
the workforce are negatively impacted.
Q: Do you see any signs of change coming in
public assistance policy?
One step that many states and some localities are
taking is to increase minimum wage. Getting money in the hands of
families is one way to reduce need for public assistance. Some
localities are using zoning to set aside affordable housing units for
low-income families which would help families since housing is their
largest expense. The Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 was an
attempt to make pharmaceutical drugs available to older adults.
Unfortunately, that legislation has produced a frustrating situation
for seniors and needs to be revisited. For seniors faced with
decisions about food or medicine, relief in access to, and cost of
drugs, is one kind of public assistance.
Federal legislation is under consideration that
would expand the preparation of the health care workforce. This could
bode well, especially if deployed into the underserved rural areas. This
summer, Congress is debating the future of the 10 year-old health
insurance program for children. This issue is one that citizens need to
weigh in on as opinions about continuing, expanding or decreasing
funding are debated.
These examples either directly or indirectly affect
public assistance—who uses it and under what conditions. So yes, there
are signs. And, since elected officials listen to those who get their
ear, citizens need to engage in deliberation about how best to balance
private and public welfare and well-being.
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