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Elder Care News
A Little More Financial Support for Poor Elderly
Seems to Improve Health
Research shows poverty is bad for your health; small
investment by government may save big on health care
By Susan Kuchinskas, Contributing Writer
Health Behavior News Service
 March 10, 2008 - A modest boost in financial
support to the elderly poor might reduce old-age disability and be a
good investment in public health, according to a large-scale, nationwide
study.
“There’s a lot of research that shows that poverty
is bad for your health. So, if we increase people’s income through
income support policies, hopefully those policies will also lead to
health improvements,” said lead author Pamela Herd, a professor of
sociology at the University of Wisconsin.
The researchers analyzed census data between 1990
and 2000, focusing on single adults 65 and older, living in all 50
states and the District of Columbia, comprising 5 percent of the total
U.S. population.
An increase of $100 per month in the maximum
Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefit led to an 11 percent
reduction in the number of people reporting a disability, the
researchers found. The study defined “disability” as a health condition
lasting six months or more that made it difficult or impossible to go
out alone.
The study, which appears in the March issue of The
Milbank Quarterly, correlated increases in income support via SSI, a
program designed to provide financial aid to the poorest elderly or
disabled Americans. Because SSI payments vary by state and can go up or
down over time, they provided a convenient way to test the relationship.
Stephen Crystal, Ph.D., associate director for
health services research at Rutgers University’s Institute of Health,
Health Care Policy and Aging Research, said he was skeptical of the
study’s conclusions.
“There’s an implication that the important
determinant of health outcomes is economic resources, rather than access
to health care,” he said. “I think that is too strong a claim to make
from results like this.” He thought the effect sizes were implausibly
large and questionably short-term.
The study’s authors acknowledge the need for
further analyses to confirm its reliability, as well as the need to
examine other income support policies.
Herd said her goal was to illustrate how social
policies influence health.
“We want policymakers to be aware that when they
make changes in Social Security policy or the SSI program, that they may
just not be impacting older people’s economic security, they may be
impacting their health outcomes,” she said.
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