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(HealthNewsDigest.com) – While the Census Bureau’s official poverty measure shows 9 percent of seniors nationally live in poverty, the share climbs to about one in seven seniors (15 percent) under the bureau’s alternative Supplemental Poverty Measure, which takes into account out-of-pocket health expenses and geographic differences in the cost of living. A new video produced by the Kaiser Family Foundation, Old and Poor: America’s Forgotten, provides a portrait of seniors who are living in poverty, in both urban and rural areas across the United States.
The new video shows the difficult challenges that low-income seniors face in making ends meet; every day, they juggle the costs of health care, safe housing, transportation and food. Featuring first-hand interviews with low-income seniors living in Baltimore, rural West Virginia, and Los Angeles, the video provides context for ongoing discussions about policy changes to Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and Supplemental Security Income (SSI).
Segments of this video debuted at today’s Senate Special Committee on Aging hearing, Income Security and the Elderly: Securing Gains Made in the War on Poverty, as part of testimony by Foundation Senior Vice President Tricia Neuman, director of the Foundation’s Program on Medicare Policy.
Watch and share this video to learn more about seniors living in poverty and the challenges they face. Additional research and analysis on seniors and their financial resources can be found on the Foundation’s website at kff.org/medicare.
The Kaiser Family Foundation, a leader in health policy analysis, health journalism and communication, is dedicated to filling the need for trusted, independent information on the major health issues facing our nation and its people. The Foundation is a non-profit private operating foundation, based in Menlo Park, California.
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