Seniors Face 'Soaring Costs' for Health Care, Other
Needs with No End in Sight
Chicago Tribune Reports retirees have accumulated
more debt than ever
An age of uncertainty
Seniors living on a fixed income
face hard choices as costs soar for groceries, gas and medicine.
No relief is in sight.
May 20, 2008 - The
Chicago Tribune
on Sunday examined how, "with soaring costs of prescription drugs,
housing, gasoline and groceries, it is easy for seniors on fixed incomes
to go over budget."
According to experts, many seniors depend on Social
Security payments, pensions and personal savings and "cannot keep up
with inflation," and, to "keep up with the rising costs of prescription
drugs and medical payments not covered by Medicare, retirees have
accumulated more debt than ever," reports Dahleen Glanton in the
Tribune.
In response, groups such as
AARP and
the
Legal Aid Society
have offered programs to help seniors with financial problems.
David Irwin, a spokesperson for AARP, said,
"Everyone is getting hit hard, but seniors with a tight income get hit
even harder," adding, "When you look at someone who has retired ... and
what companies are doing with retiree health care plans, more and more
health care costs are coming out of the pocket of the individual, and
pension plans are slipping away as well."
Jerome Lamet, supervising attorney for
Debt Counsel for
Seniors & the Disabled, said that seniors often are
"bombarded with preapproved credit card solicitations because
(companies) think if seniors take their card, they are going to pay,"
although "these are people living on Social Security."
He added, "For many of them, it was either use the
credit card to buy prescription drugs or die" (Glanton, Chicago Tribune,
5/18).
