Health Expenses of Low-Income Seniors on Medicare

Medicare doesn’t cover many health-care expenses for low-income seniors, By N.C. Aizenman, July 18, 2011, Washington Post: “Helen Johnson gave a welcoming smile to the group of older men and women who had assembled at the senior center in the Maryland Eastern Shore town of Snow Hill on a recent evening. All of them were caregivers for spouses or parents with debilitating illnesses. ‘We’re very concerned about you,’ began Johnson, 74, who organizes support programs for a nonprofit agency serving the elderly. ‘You spend so much time tending to your loved ones, you don’t have time for your self.’ But Johnson’s comforting message masked worries of her own. There was the gnawing pain in her arthritic knee, which gets so bad by late afternoon that she can’t stand up for more than a few minutes at a time. There was her dread of the drive home after dark, which has become difficult as her eyesight has weakened. And perhaps most wearying, there was the knowledge that despite her dislike of working evening hours, she had no alternative. Nearly a decade after reaching retirement age and qualifying for Medicare, Johnson cannot afford to give up her job. Even with the paycheck it brings, her income is only a few notches above the federal poverty level…”