This paper examines elderly poverty in the United States, arguing that the problem stems from three primary factors: escalating healthcare and living expenses for older adults, insufficient government assistance programs, and an aging demographic population. The paper documents how medical costs and fixed incomes create financial hardship, analyzes gaps in Social Security and pension systems that disproportionately affect women, and discusses how population aging will intensify the crisis. The author concludes that targeted, well-funded universal social insurance programs are necessary to prevent widespread poverty among future generations of retirees.
Imagine being homeless and destitute on the streets at age 85—hungry, cold, and confused. Many citizens across the country are forced to face appalling conditions such as this during their later years. Although saving for retirement may be a top priority for many people, costly expenses that strike older adults make it almost impossible to set aside sufficient funds. Furthermore, this problem is becoming increasingly serious because the aging population in this country is growing steadily. These individuals, being older and somewhat less able to care for themselves, are placed in a terrible and frightening position. Elderly poverty in the United States is a serious problem due to the extra expenses older adults face, inadequate help from government programs, and a rapidly aging population.
As mentioned, certain expenses such as healthcare exact a severe toll on elderly budgets. Healthcare costs for older adults are substantially higher than for younger populations. According to one source, "Health care costs for workers who are between 50 and 65 are, on average, almost two times what they are for their peers in their 30s and 40s" (Fishman 50). To cope with these expenses, the elderly sometimes sacrifice their already-failing health to pay bills. One police officer on an unrelated case recalls seeing an elderly household "cutting pills in half to save money" (Walters 22). This solution can be disastrous for many seniors. Eating cheap, unhealthy foods might also be a more common way they attempt to make ends meet while managing their health. Additionally, elderly people who live in their own homes face significant obstacles. Living on fixed income, many older adults could theoretically live independently on their savings. However, "throw in a mortgage and poor health, and the amount of income needed to live independently quickly skyrockets" (Walters 23). The combination of medical expenses and housing costs creates an insurmountable financial barrier for many retirees.
As much as people try to avoid it, aging is inevitable. However, the country too is aging. As a result of the longer lives that modern medicine can now provide and the trend of smaller families producing fewer young people, a larger portion of the population is growing old, making the issue of elderly poverty increasingly important (Fishman 50). For example, the current median age in the world is 28 years old, but "by midcentury, the median age will have risen to 40" (Fishman 50). Many older individuals cannot find the money to thrive in current society. With an aging population, the shrinking number of people in the working age will have to provide for the growing elderly population. Simultaneously, the recent erosion of the traditional family unit "will result in fewer available and willing family caregivers for elders" (Yee 18). This means that fewer people will be able to care for impoverished seniors, leaving them with no one to turn to and intensifying their vulnerability.
Despite how serious this situation may seem, the government does have programs such as Social Security benefits designed to ensure economic stability for these individuals. With the creation of programs such as these, progress has been documented in helping elderly populations (Kurtzleben). However, these programs are structurally unfit in many ways to solve this problem comprehensively. First, benefits are based on lifetime income, and since there are "stark gender differences in life-time earnings" (partly because housework and childcare do not generate income), there is a significant disparity between what women and men receive (Carr 63). Additionally, private pensions that employers provide heavily favor men over women: "While roughly one-third of older men receive a private pension, only 18 percent of women do so. Among those who receive a pension, men's pensions are nearly twice the size of women's" (Carr 63).
Pension systems also fail to account for the inevitable widowing of one spouse in a marriage. In such situations, a surviving spouse must "pay high end-of-life medical expenses and funeral bills that can overwhelm their already low income and savings" without assistance from their deceased partner's pension benefits (Carr 63). Additionally, it is predicted that "The dependence of elders on Social Security to avoid poverty will grow, as larger numbers of boomers retire from 2010 onward" (Yee 18). Since many experts predict this program will face serious shortfalls, this dependency will leave many without adequate retirement funds, causing widespread poverty among future generations.
The question now is how this problem can be fixed. Many minor attempts have been made to address it. Government programs have been developed, and countless charities have been created to bring financial relief to impoverished elderly individuals. Still, these efforts are inadequate to solve the problem on a large scale. In fact, many experts believe this problem will only worsen. Unless substantial amounts of money are invested—which will presumably strain the economic stability of other age groups—this will likely remain a persistent problem. Although awareness of this issue has increased and more people have begun saving earlier and working longer before retirement, "poverty experts…despair over the relative readiness of states and localities to deal with the looming needs—and costs—associated with an aging population" (Walters 38).
"Why universal social insurance is necessary"
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