I stumbled upon this article this morning and found it heartbreaking. A recent study released today by researchers calling on the state to better track its seniors who have slipped off the public radar.

The UCLA Center for Health Policy Research report measured economic stability by the real costs to eat, travel and pay for medical costs and housing in each of California’s 58 counties.The findings reveal 47 percent of state residents 65 and older are unable to pay for their basic needs. That’s 864,000 seniors, more than half of whom struggle at home alone.

The new data reveal far deeper poverty rates among seniors than was previously known. According to the decades-old standard of measuring poverty, only 9 to 10 percent of California seniors were considered poor, that is, earning less than $10,000 a year. Researchers note that amount is peanuts in high-cost California, failing to reflect the true cost of survival.

The researchers are calling on the state to continue their data collection and use the new measurement to determine eligibility for need-based public programs. California’s aged population is expected to grow by 18 percent in the next four years.

Little in the state budget so far, or the federal stimulus package, will be of much assistance. California’s budget passed last week will cut SSI payments for hundreds of thousands of California seniors by $37 each month, with the possibility of another $20 cut come July. Cuts to home health care subsidies which keep the elderly and infirm out of more costly nursing homes also loom.

President Barack Obama’s stimulus plan will, however, provide some temporary relief for SSI recipients who are blind, elderly or disabled, a group that number 1.3 million in California. Those recipients will receive a one-time $250 cash payment in the coming months.

The Elder Economic Dignity Act of 2009, a bill introduced this month by Assemblyman Jim Beall, D-San Jose, calls for the state to continue tracking seniors in poverty using new measurements. At present, officials rely on a 50-year-old federal measure to determine who is above or below poverty.

Source: mercurynews.com

Sunrise Senior Living now offers a new informational guide to help seniors and their families identify ideas for affording senior care in today’s challenging economy. The guide, called Affording Senior Living: The Financial Options, is available at Sunrise communities nationwide and also online at www.sunriseseniorliving.com/financialoptions .
The Affording Senior Living Guide gives tips for families and helps to identify a variety of financial products that are available in the marketplace today to help families who need access to senior care, but are unsure how they will pay for it.
Affording Senior Living: The Financial Options incldues information about the following:

Traditional options such as investments, savings and income
Real estate options such as home equity loans and reverse mortgages
Insurance options such as long term care insurance and life settlements
Government options such as Veterans’ Benefits and Medicare

The Journal of Neurophysiology resported thata recent study has been in the works that is working on on a way to “inoculate” seniors against falls. Those efforts appear to be paying off, according to recent reports.

For this study, researchers trained eight volunteers on a moveable platform, causing the participants to lose their balance. When walking across a vinyl floor with a hidden slippery spot, the group that had trained on the platform did not slip, and only one person lost balance. A control group of untrained balancers did not fare so well. Those who had trained on the platform also were able to control the slide of their feet much better than the control group.

Researchers beleive that seniors can be similarly trained to develop such fall-response skills, and that previous research has found that seniors are as able to learn new skills as younger adults.

ccording to a new Government Accountability Office report  the economic stimulus package Congress would boost each state’s federal medical assistance percentage  by 7.6% from the first quarter of fiscal year 2009 through the end of the first quarter of fiscal year 2011.

The Medicaid funding would total nearly $87 billion over the period, the report said. State allocations would range from less than $100 million to more than $12 billion.Besides raising each state’s FMAP, the bill would provide additional FMAP assistance based on increased unemployment. It would create three tiers based on state unemployment rates, each of which would correspond to an additional FMAP increase.

To see the report, go to http://www.gao.gov

Medicare beneficiaries who require assistance with three or more activities of daily living account for up to one-quarter of all Medicare Part A and B spending. This despite the fact they constitute only 7% of the Medicare population, according to a new analysis.

These beneficiaries consume roughly $18,902 each—nearly 4.5 times as much as beneficiaries without disabilities, a new report from Avalere Health finds. Post-acute care services and some other Medicare services that transition beneficiaries from acute to long-term care settings may be soaking up Medicare funds, according to the report. Palliative and hospice care services, both covered by Medicare, experienced significant increases in length of stay between 2000 and 2005 for Alzheimer’s and dementia patients. This suggests that these services are filling a gap in long-term care for demanding beneficiaries.

Avalere Health conducted the study on behalf of The SCAN Foundation.

Diabetics, including those who become diagnosed in middle age, have more than double the risk of acquiring Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia later in life, new research shows. Those who got diabetes before the age of 65 were 125% more likely to acquire Alzheimer’s, Gatz said. Study results were published in last month’s issue of the American Diabetes Association journal Diabetes.

“Our results highlighted the need to maintain a healthy lifestyle during adulthood in order to reduce the risk of dementia late in life,” said Dr. Margaret Gatz, director of the Study of Dementia in Swedish Twins.

Those who got diabetes before the age of 65 were 125% more likely to acquire Alzheimer’s, Gatz said. Study results were published in last month’s issue of the American Diabetes Association journal Diabetes.

In the January issue of the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease a recent study found that individuals who drink three to five cups of coffee in middle age have lower risks for dementia and Alzheimer’s later in life than those who drink more, or steer clear of the brew altogether.

“Given the large amount of coffee consumption globally, the results might have important implications for the prevention of or delaying the onset of dementia/AD,” said lead researcher Miia Kivipelto an associate professor at the University of Kuopio in Finland and Karolinska Institute in Sweden. “The finding needs to be confirmed by other studies, but it opens the possibility that dietary interventions could modify the risk of dementia/AD. Also, identification of mechanisms of how coffee exerts its protection against dementia/AD might help in the development of new therapies for these diseases.”

Source: Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease