Posted on December 7, 2006 by Jason
Fort Wayne News-Sentinel, December 6th, 2006
Though hugely expensive for American taxpayers, most seniors who
have joined the Medicare prescription drug benefit say they’re
satisfied with it. Still, the Democrats who are about to take over the
U.S. House and Senate think they can improve it. Their idea: Give the
government the power to negotiate prices with the drug companies.
That’s now forbidden by law. Incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
promises to move legislation in the first 100 hours of the next
Congress to unleash the bargaining power of the federal government with
the hope that it would drive better bargains for lower drug prices.
Obviously, there’s enormous popular appeal in that, particularly for
seniors who often struggle with rising prices. Medicare coverage of
seniors’ drug purchases is projected to cost $729 billion over a
decade. Why shouldn’t government negotiators demand the best prices,
just as they do with everything else they buy?
It could work, and there is precedent. Medicare does set a fee
schedule for what it will pay hospitals and doctors. But there’s also
reason for some skepticism here.
First, there is competition in the Medicare drug plan. Private
insurers who operate within the plan negotiate the best deals they can
with drug companies and suppliers. It’s not clear how the government
would inject itself into that system. Some Democrats envision a federal
plan that would compete directly with the private plans. Some Democrats
want to empower the feds to negotiate a “benchmark” for all Medicare
drug prices. The private companies that run plans could then try to
drive a harder bargain. If they couldn’t, they’d still be able to buy
the drugs at the federal benchmark price.
Read more of this article.
Posted on December 6, 2006 by Jason
Sacramento Bee, December 6th, 2006
The Medicare prescription drug benefit was designed only
tangentially to provide medicine to the elderly. Its distinction is
that it stands as a totem to the Republican Party’s uncontrollable urge
to use tax money to prop up its corporate backers, in this case the
managed-care health insurance industry.
Democrats who take
control of Congress next month pledge a nip-and-tuck fix to what they
consider the program’s most outrageous giveaway: preventing Medicare
from negotiating directly with drug makers to obtain deep discounts.
The benefits of this Democratic campaign promise were that it was easy
for voters to understand and provided a convenient way to achieve party
unity.
But the ugly truth is that even if the Medicare drug bill
were completely revamped, the overhaul would not reverse the billions
in giveaways now flowing from Medicare to the managed-care industry
through other routes outside the drug program.
Read more of this article.
Posted on December 5, 2006 by Jason
Yahoo Hotjobs, December 5th, 2006
Unlike their parents or grandparents, many baby boomers aren’t interested in
retiring from work in their 50s and 60s. As a result, companies are making
strategic decisions to support an aging workforce by providing flexible work
schedules, telecommuting options, and other benefits to retain and attract
candidates over the age of 50.
Some major companies, for example, post jobs on sites that cater exclusively
to seniors. Others apply to make the AARP’s annual list of 50 Best Employers for
Workers Over 50.
The AARP Honor Roll
The employers honored by the AARP in 2006 include Mercy Health System of
Janesville, Wis.; Yale-New Haven Hospital in New Haven, Conn.; Hoffmann-La Roche
Inc. in Nutley, N.J.; Volkswagen of America Inc. in Auburn Hills, Mich.; John
Deere of Moline, Ill.; and Principal Financial Group of Des Moines, Iowa. (You
can find the complete list at AARP.org.)
Mercy Health, the not-for-profit organization that topped the AARP list, was
singled out for offering numerous flexible options, including weekend-only work,
nursing “float” options (work at different facilities or departments),
work-at-home opportunities, “seasonal work” programs, and on-call assignments
that involve a limited number of hours per month that can be expanded or
contracted based on an employee’s availability.
Read more of this article.
Posted on December 5, 2006 by Jason
CNN Money, December 4th, 2006
When Medicare began offering Part D prescription drug coverage for the first
time this year, seniors had six months to sort through the chaos – and it was
chaos – to pick a plan.
This time you’ll have just six weeks to enroll or change plans for 2007, with
a deadline of Dec. 31. “That includes the holidays,” warns Tricia Neuman,
director of the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Medicare Policy Project.
There’s a lot to consider. Some plans have expanded drug coverage, while
others have reduced it. Some premiums are higher, others lower. And many
consumers still have to grapple with how to pay drug costs in the program’s
infamous coverage gap, a.k.a. the doughnut hole.
The good news is that in a midyear survey of Part D participants, nearly half
of respondents said they were saving money. Need to make a decision for yourself
or a loved one? Read on.
What’s new in 2007
With a few tweaks in the numbers, the basic plan structure remains the same.
Participants usually pay a deductible (for 2007, $265 or less), after which they
pay 25 percent of “total drug costs” up to a preset level ($2,400 next year).
Then comes the gap: Coverage stops until bills reach $3,850. At that point
insurance kicks in again, picking up 95 percent of the tab. Now for what’s
changed:
Read more of this article.
Posted on December 4, 2006 by Jason
The New York Times, December 2nd, 2006
As you snatch a couple more Christmas cookies or down another eggnog, you might
be thinking about what those extra calories will do to your health.
But have you considered what they will do to your wealth? The sugar and fat
will add pounds, which can lead to heart disease, diabetes, and a shortened life span.
There is another consequence to packing on extra weight: being fat costs
money — tens of thousands of dollars over a lifetime.
Heavy people do not spend more than normal-size people on food, but their
life insurance premiums are two to four times as large. They can expect higher
medical expenses, and they tend to make less money and accumulate less wealth in
their shortened lifetimes. They can have a harder time being hired, and then a
harder time winning plum assignments and promotions.
We’re not talking about people who are merely carrying a few extra pounds, or
only those who are Jabba the Hutt in their dimensions, either. People carrying
30 to 40 pounds extra can be affected.
“Being overweight can be dangerous to your wealth,” said Jay L. Zagorsky, an
economist at Ohio State University who has looked at the relationship between various economic
and sociological factors and a measure of obesity called the body mass index.
Read more of this article.
Posted on December 4, 2006 by Jason
Seacoast Online, December 4th, 2006
Despite the fact that we have enjoyed a long period of relatively low
inflation, the cost of living continues to rise. A growing number of seniors
living on limited or fixed incomes now find themselves house rich but cash poor.
Confronted with mounting cash-flow shortages, many of them have been faced with
the unpleasant prospect of having to sell a beloved family home.
Reverse mortgages were developed as one way to address this problem. A
reverse mortgage provides funds to seniors, either in a lump sum or over time,
using the equity in their homes as collateral. Unlike traditional mortgages or
equity loans, which borrowers are required to repay, reverse mortgages require
no monthly repayments. The total loan balance, including accumulated interest,
is repaid when the home is sold or the last surviving borrower dies.
According to the National Center for Home Equity Conversion, the first known
reverse mortgage was issued in 1961 by a banker in Portland, Maine, to the widow
of his high school football coach. Reverse mortgages were later used in other
areas of the country as well, but it was nearly 20 years before their existence
received widespread exposure and government endorsement. Today, there are many
types of both federally insured reverse mortgages as well as privately funded
programs.
There are more features, restrictions and requirements to reverse mortgages
than I have room to list here, but many resources are available to help you
learn more.
Read more of this article.
Posted on December 4, 2006 by Jason
Kare 11 Minneapolis, December 4th, 2006
You’ve saved most of your life so you can kick back in your golden years. Now
what?
If there’s one challenge as daunting as all those years of
squirreling money away for retirement, it’s this: making sure you don’t run out
of money during retirement.
You have to figure out how much to withdraw
each year. Whether to get a part-time job. Or an annuity. And if you fail to
plan for unexpected health care costs, you might have to kiss those exciting
travel plans goodbye.
“It’s what I refer to as the unexpected marathon,”
says Jim McCarthy, a managing director in Morgan Stanley’s retirement group. “I
get to 65, and I’m exhausted because I’ve gone through this long savings phase.
Then the guy with the clipboard comes over and says, ‘The starting line is over
there.’ “
Fading corporate pensions and longer life spans make it hard to
generate enough income to maintain your living standard in retirement – a period
that can last nearly as long as your working years. Today, a healthy 65-year-old
man can expect to live, on average, 19 more years; an average 65-year-old woman
will live close to 22 more years. There’s nearly a one-in-three chance that one
or both will make it to age 95, says the American Academy of Actuaries.
Read more of this article.
Posted on December 1, 2006 by Jason
PBS, December 1st, 2006
“A powerful and intimate journey into the uncharted territory of Americans living
longer than ever — and what it means for them, their loved ones and our society.”
For the past several years, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting has ben conduncting a series of interviews, case studies, and examinations of the impact of the longer lifespans of Baby Boomers on themselves, and on their families and caregivers. Rather than boil the interviews and studies down into a series of statistics or pie charts, PBS ha placed the entire series of interviews on their website, along with in-depth looks at the major issues that face seniors today. The stories are many and varied, from the 94-year-old stockbroker who still commutes to work every day, to the middle-aged and older children of seniors with Alzheimer’s or advanced Parkinson’s diseases.
I, the editor of this blog, urge all those interested in the issues confronting seniors today, weather they themselves are in or approaching that age, or their parents and grandparents are, to read these stories and watch these interviews, as they reveal a cross-section of american senior living more accurate than any article can possibly show.
The entire series can be viewed and read here.
