Free Republic

As many as 80% of aging adults in America lack the financial resources to pay for two years of nursing home care or four years of an assisted living community. That’s according to a new study from the National Council on Aging (NCOA) and the LeadingAge LTSS Center at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Additionally, 60% of older adults — or 24 million households — would not have the funds to pay for in-home long-term care, despite the fact that they would prefer to “age in place,” per a report from NCOA. Researchers analyzed 2018 data from the Health and...

It was the free soft drink at Whataburger that got Melvin Schwartz hooked. Then he learned Chick-fil-A does it, too. “I hate spending $2 or $3 on a Coke,” said the 75-year-old retired IRS agent, whose senior discount also earns him 10 percent off his usual Hungr-Buster combo at Dairy Queen and nacho salad at Taco Bueno near his Dallas home. Senior discounts have been around for decades. Now, they’re having a moment. Reviewer mentions of “senior discount” soared 36 percent from 2021 to 2022, according to data from crowdsourced review site Yelp. And AARP says a growing number of...

The debt ceiling limit is back in the news. In the past, political leaders have responded to concerns about this issue by suggesting that Social Security checks might not go out on time should Congress not agree on another debt ceiling extension. This begs the obvious question: Why a program with a $2.8 trillion reserve cannot pay benefits on time? Pundits have weighed in on the subject, as have the fact checkers who largely agree that checks should not be at risk -- at least in theory. It is time for the Treasury Department to explain why Social Security checks...

Bridget Fonda hit headlines on Wednesday after she was photographed out in public for the first time in more than a decade. The 58-year-old former actress — who quit Hollywood in 2002 and hasn’t walked a red carpet since 2010 — looked unrecognizable as she ran errands in Los Angeles. (snip) Fonda has proven that even the most glamorous stars change over the years, and she joins a growing number of former pinups who are defiantly owning their age and prioritizing personal comfort over public expectations. Other ’80s and ’90s heartthrobs, however, have taken a different route — sparking speculation...

CDC is investigating a potential link between COVID mRNA injections and ischemic strokes

Pfizer's bivalent Covid booster could increase the risk of a stroke in recipients over age 65, officials report. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) officials cited vaccine safety database data that showed an increased risk of ischemic stroke in the elderly within three weeks of getting the shot. An ischemic stroke, also known as brain ischemia, is caused by blockages in arteries that carry blood to the brain. The safety concern requires more investigation and 'the totality of the data currently suggests that it is very unlikely that the signal … represents a true clinical risk', CDC wrote in...

The number of seniors visiting emergency rooms in California for cannabis-related issues is growing, according to new research. From 2005 to 2019, the state’s emergency departments saw a 1,808 percent relative increase in the rate of cannabis-related trips among those aged 65 and older. Cannabis is currently legal for both medicinal and recreational use in California. The state became the first in the country to legalize medical marijuana in 1996, while the substance was not approved for recreational use there until November 2016. The study found that cannabis-related emergency department visits in California rose sharply among seniors from 2013 to...

Scene: With a patient in my medical exam room Me: How old are your kids? Patient: Forty-four and 39 from my wife who passed away, and from my second wife, 15 and 13. Me: That’s quite the age difference! Patient: Well, the older ones didn’t give me any grandkids, so I made my own. —Mria Murillo I tried having my mother’s phone disconnected, but the customer-service rep told me that since the account was in my dad’s name, he’d have to be the one to put in the request. The fact that he’d been dead for 40 years didn’t sway...

Lynne Ingersoll and her cat, Jesse, spent a quiet Thanksgiving Day together in her small bungalow in Blue Island, Ill. A retired librarian, Ms. Ingersoll never married or had children. At 77, she has outlived her parents, three partners, her two closest friends, five dogs and eight cats. When her sister died three years ago, Ms. Ingersoll joined the ranks of older Americans considered “kinless”: without partners or spouses, children or siblings. Covid-19 has largely suspended her occasional get-togethers with friends, too. Now, she said, “my social life consists of doctors and store clerks — that’s a joke, but it’s...

A terrible thing is happening to America’s seniors. While overall poverty rates in the United States are falling, they are rising for Americans over age 65. That’s according to the latest U.S. Census Bureau data, which says the share of older people living below the poverty line rose to 10.3% in 2021, up from 8.9% in 2020. The increase means that an additional 1 million older adults have fallen below the poverty threshold, bringing the total number of seniors in that unfortunate category to nearly 6 million, according to an analysis by the National Council on Aging (NCOA). “We are...

A top White House health official on Monday issued a stark warning to older people about the health risk they face this fall and winter from Covid-19. Dr. Ashish Jha, head of the White House Covid task force, said everyone older than 50 and senior citizens in particular need to get an omicron booster as soon as possible. "If you're over 50, certainly if you're over 65, you've got to go get these vaccines because it actually, literally could save your life. It's a difference between life and death," Jha said during an interview with Yahoo Finance. The elderly have...

It’s likely going to be the biggest benefit hike in decades, but it might not mean what you think.Nothing’s been finalized yet, but 2023 seems poised to bring Social Security’s biggest increase in over 40 years. This is a big deal for the millions of Americans who count upon Social Security to help them cover their expenses. But there are still a lot of misconceptions about this impending benefit boost. Here are three things all Social Security recipients ought to know about it.1. You don’t have to do anything to claim it Social Security checks are projected to go up...

The Navy intercepted a boatload of people off the Texas coast today. This placed the Navy in an awkward position as the boat was not heading to the USA, but towards Mexico and Central America. Another surprise finding was the people were white American retirement age seniors. Their claim was that they were trying to get to Central America or Southern Mexico as they wanted to return to the US as illegal immigrants. Then they would be entitled to far more benefits than they were receiving as legitimate American retirees. It is believed the Navy gave them food, water and...

For as long as anyone can remember, rent increases rarely happened at Ridgeview Homes, a family-owned mobile home park in upstate New York. That changed in 2018 when corporate owners took over the 65-year-old park located amid farmland and down the road from a fast food joint and grocery store about 30 miles northeast of Buffalo. Residents, about half of whom are seniors or disabled people on fixed incomes, put up with the first two increases. They hoped the latest owner, Cook Properties, would address the bourbon-colored drinking water, sewage bubbling into their bathtubs and the pothole-filled roads. When that...

Leaders of Texas’ Republican Party continue to promote false claims that the 2020 presidential election was “stolen” from former President Donald Trump – and during the Texas GOP convention in Houston last month, members overwhelmingly voted to make election reforms the party’s No. 1 priority. As the Houston Chronicle reports, this means they want the state to adopt laws in the 2023 legislative session that would further restrict voting by shortening the early voting period from two weeks to one and by no longer letting any senior vote by mail. “They’re going off of this assumption that there’s more fraud...

Americans are being urged to stop using any of 285,000 adult portable bed rails after the deaths of at least three people who suffocated after becoming caught in one of 10 models of the product. The bed rails were manufactured and sold by Mobility Transfer Systems from 1992 to 2021 and by Metal Tubing USA in 2021 and 2022, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said on Thursday. Neither company has agreed to recall the beds or offer a remedy to consumers, according to the agency. At least three people died after becoming entrapped in the products, including a 78-year-old...

My wife has been pestering me to join a Seniors organization for the savings/benefits that can be provided. I refuse to join AARP as I do my best to not to patronize those organizations that have proven themselves to be brazenly contrary to my social/political beliefs

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis confirmed that the Food and Drug Administration agreed to extend the expiration date for almost 1 million rapid COVID-19 test kits. The tests initially expired last September, but the expiration was extended to December before they expired again. The new extension will last for three months. "At the end of the summer they expired. The FDA agreed to extend it for three months, but during those three months there was almost zero demand for testing because we had such low COVID prevalence," he said during a press conference Wednesday. "The Division of Emergency Management had been...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The head of a Senate panel that oversees Medicare says the Biden administration should use its legal authority to cut back a hefty premium increase soon hitting millions of enrollees, as a growing number of Democratic lawmakers call for action amid worries over rising inflation. Last month, Medicare announced one of the largest increases ever in its “Part B” monthly premium for outpatient care, nearly $22, from $148.50 currently to $170.10 starting in January. The agency attributed roughly half the hike, about $11 a month, to the need for a contingency fund to cover Aduhelm, a new...

* Mexican soldiers in the state of Zacatecas recovered on Sunday the dead bodies of three men who were abducted from their ranches Friday * Salvador Herrera, 89; his son, Eutimio Herrera, 60; and Carmelo Hernández, 79, were discovered on a road in the Valparaíso neighborhood of San Martin * The families told local media outlets that the armed kidnappers did not contact them to request ransoms for the release of their loved ones * The victims were among seven elderly men who were kidnapped Friday; the whereabouts of the other four men are unknown * A spokesperson with the...