One of the biggest drains on the Medicare trust funds are funds for shady home health care services. Maybe related, maybe not there is a home care group that spends tens of thousands of dollars annually lobbying the Massachusetts legislature with a strange stew of "our clients (seniors) are stupid" mixed with a mid-1930s-sounding Socialism/Communism manifesto. Luckily its lobbyist -- who publishes tripe regularly in a left-wing blog called Over 50 Advocates1 -- does not speak for we seniors. If he or she did, his or her proposals -- which basically say that we seniors all should be put on Medicaid and/or be farmed out in our older years to his or her government-funded clients -- might cause concern.
So you can pretty much dismiss this group's nonsense except for its recent unsourced reference to a “recent report” about economic insecurity among Massachusetts citizens over 65.
Apparently by “recent,” this lobbyist is talking about recently regurgitated years-old data from the far-left-wing Massachusetts Association of Older Americans (MAOA) that – in collaboration with leftists at UMass – claims that “63% of Massachusetts’ retired elder households are economically insecure.” Not only is the claim four years old but the UMass research on which it is based2 goes further back and actually says
- "Elders who live alone in Massachusetts cannot make ends meet at the poverty level or at the average Social Security payment without subsidies for housing and health care." Well yeah, that's why they call it "the poverty level." But the poverty level only affects about 10% of us Massachusetts seniors, not 63%. And beware of the word "average;” the amount in the average Social Security payment factors in all the people who contributed very little to Social Security during their whole working lives (because, like some retired teachers, they did not work under SS or because they are truly elderly, over 85). The dollar amount that the lefties at UMass use is a non-issue with we current retirees; the research makes no allowance for this major demographic split between us and our parents. The research also apparently does not factor our use of savings in our retirement (that’s why we saved it) and also does not even factor in the use of public programs such as senior housing by some of us (that's why we built it).
- "Some elders who are currently making ends meet face uncertainty if their life circumstances change, such as losing a spouse or experiencing a change in health status." Yes, we do face such things. Uncertainty is a fact of life we seniors certainly don't need government lobbyists and goo goo academics from UMass explaining that to us. That's why hundreds of thousands of us -- most of the 90% not in poverty -- planned for uncertainty with life insurance, surviving-spouse pension options, and other financial strategies also not factored into the UMass research.
1The lobbyist is also in favor of the current cutting of the Medicare trust funds under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 as amended (better known as Obamacare) and the organization the lobbyist represents says it supports Congressperson Clark's proposed state tax on our Medicare policies (Clark made the proposal while a State Senator).
2UMass' 5-/10-year-old research appears to be full of other methodological problems.