This is a sheer impossibility; until you are in these circumstances you could not know what existence is for countless elders. In the United States
Saying this, for the remainder of the seniors they are pushed aside, even by the medical community. First let’s start with the earnings. For a couple, in many because the man will bring in income based on his highest three years he secured during his life-time of working, this will be averaged out to his once a month checks social security check. If his spouse, on no account worked, stayed home; cooked, took care of the children, was the bond that keep the home together, well she will receive a small SSI check from the government, maybe a few hundred a month or so.
Currently if you are a women whose husband may have divorced you in your later years, you will only get the SSI check for income because you did not work, if he passed away and you were his wife of many years, you will inherit his income to add, which would help a great deal. Sad to say this is rare. After doing a great deal of research if you are single, disabled and worked good jobs all your life, then when you do retire or become disabled, the income you received was livable and possible, at the present at the time you first received it; you cannot life on this income.
The system depends on which state you live in, and for this article we are in Colorado Springs and foremost food stamps, many seniors are offered $4.00 to $10.00 per month in food stamp, why is this so low, because the families that have a million children, legally or not, so I am told, get a large amount of food stamps, and in many cases there are numerous family members and friends all breathing beneath one roof. Same with energy assistance called Leap, and it was once a remarkable program except the cost of gas and electric has risen to such an elevated cost that the money they send, now only last one month of in the winter, in the past this would help a family for perhaps a good three months.
Let’s talk about doctors and medication, a sore subject for many seniors, co-pay to visit a doctor runs around $30.00, let’s declare you need to pay a visit to two or three doctors a month. Not like the old days where one doctor took care of you, now you are required to go to a orthopedic doctor, one for your knee, another for the hips and yet another for your back. Then you ought to see your Psychiatrist every few months, and all they perform is to refills your meds, they no longer psychologically assist you and will only work with you if you are also seeing a physiologist, which would request that you ought to pop in at least once a week, bear in mind let me repeat these visits are on the average have $30.00 co-pay if you are on Medicare. Generally, nearly all seniors do not have a secondary insurance, who can afford several more hundred a month? Again, Medicare does not cover for any kind of dental, so our seniors teeth are slowly weathering away, and they pay for the cost of one eye exam every few years, but they don’t pay for glasses, hearing aids, or dental. They will pay for a monogram every few years.
Without hesitation, I see my everyday doctor at the clinic, he gives me prescriptions for high blood pressure, high cholesterol, low thyroid, diabetes, mussel relaxers for stiff neck, etc, you get my point they are so happy to give you pills, even for pain! Pills, Pills and more Pills. Then there is my head doc who writes me some pretty powerful medications that you must take and can never go off abruptly, or they could kill you. So everyday I take so much medication that my body is being poisoned. Each one of these drugs has co-pay that varies. The cost of my co-pays alone comes to about $300.00 a month.
Then there is your car, to clean it, put gas in it and to keep it well maintained is impossible. Paying the rent is the one thing that must be done and that is half or more, for the majority senior’s income. Straight away we have car insurance, homeowners insurance, medical insurance, Medicare takes out $100.00 a month from this small monthly check to pay for Medicare Insurance. To top it off this January 2010 our wonderful government said let’s give money to the Auto and Bank industries and not give our seniors their yearly cost of living increase. Thank you Obama, you hate giving senior citizens their yearly raise, since you have taken office as President, we are all hungry and dying....
Senior also having fun:
In conclusion, the motivation for starting with this article is since I engage in lived and survived in Colorado Springs as a low income senior, which required that I become skilled at the particulars; due to a great deal of research on this area under discussion. I would be fond of initiating a senior Column; to establish an opportunity to help senior’s, and I am familiar with where to go for virtually all the help you might need. Accordingly, ask me questions, I will research or know the answer and then I will write back here on, "Fresh Ink" to assist all our senior in Colorado Springs and surrounding areas....At this stage in life we are supposed to play and have fun, writing is my way of have fun, so let me lighten the load, therefore ask me questions and I promise to find different options to help.
The copyright to this article is owned by Darlene Sabella. Permission to republish this article in print or online must be granted by the author in writing. (You can, however, freely use the opening introduction and photo with a link to the article here on Fresh Ink, although you must add the link of this article.) I am also a member of Copyscape, they hold all my articles and will show if anyone should copy my works...Photo's From Flickr
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