Commentary : Ranks, Problems of Elderly Swell

There are widely held misconceptions about senior citizens, especially those living in Orange County. They are not all white, upper-middle-class Leisure Worlders. About one out of every four people over the age of 60 lives at or below the poverty level. And 6,000 of them avail themselves of low-cost lunches every day at 50 nutrition sites in the county. For many the lunches are their only hot meals of the day and their only contact with the outside world.

There are still many whose only medical attention is from deliverers willing to accept Medicare or Medi-Cal as payment in full and many still living in squalid rooms in Anaheim, Santa Ana and Garden Grove.

A most revealing study of the status of the elderly is the recently published “Aging America,” a report prepared by the staff of the Senate Special Committee on Aging and published and disseminated by the American Assn. of Retired Persons, the Federal Council on Aging and the Administration on Aging.

The study indicates that in the last two decades the number of older people grew twice as fast as the rest of the population. In Orange County, out of a population of 2 million, 8.3% are over the age of 65. Leisure World boasts nine residents over 100. And people born today have a life expectancy 26 years longer than those born in 1900.

The Senate committee also found some interesting facts about the economic status of the elderly. Despite Social Security income and pensions, older people have substantially less income than those under 65. According to Peggy Weatherspoon, director of the Area Agency on Aging, 50% of the elderly in Orange County exist on fixed incomes.

Although those who retire would prefer to continue some sort of part-time work, unemployment creates serious problems. “Older workers who lose their jobs stay unemployed longer than younger workers, suffer greater earnings loss and are more likely to give up looking for another job,” the Senate report said.

As for the health status of the elderly, although they constitute 11% of the national population, they account for 30% of hospital discharges and 33% of personal health-care expenditures. Without the Medicare and Medicaid programs, many senior citizens would be forced to forgo adequate medical care. Even with these benefits their average out-of-pocket expense in 1984 was $1,059 annually. Still, contrary to stereotype, most older persons view their health positively. Even if they have a chronic illness, two out of three elderly in Orange County describe their health as good or excellent compared to others their own age.

As the number of the elderly increases, the nursing home population will also grow because their families are unable or unwilling to care for the chronically ill or feeble. Orange County now has 65 licensed nursing homes with a total of 6,500 beds, still not sufficient for those requiring such care.

Projections predict that between 1986 and the year 2000 the nursing home population will jump by 40% from 1.5 million to 2.1 million in the U.S. and will double again by 2040. Nursing home residents are disproportionately very old, female, white and unmarried or widowed.

“Housing, while an asset for most older people, represents a serious problem for others,” the Senate report stated. According to Weatherspoon, it is the No. 1 concern of the elderly in Orange County. “For affordable housing there is a three- to five-year wait,” she said.

While many elderly homeowners no longer have mortgage payments to make, the cost of repair and maintenance of those in older homes is prohibitive. And renters are often caught in a Catch-22 situation; rents continue to rise but their incomes remain fixed.

One encouraging aspect of aging is senior citizen participation in the democratic right to vote. For example, in the presidential election of 1980, a third of those reported as voting were 55 years of age or older. Of all age groups, voters aged 55 to 64 had the highest (71%) participation rate. It is not uncommon in Orange County adult communities to have a turnout rate at elections of 90%.

The Senate report predicts that under current projections Social Security will remain solvent for the next 75 years, but that the Medicare hospital insurance trust fund is expected to be depleted some time during the 1990s, only four years off.

Right now 28% of the federal budget, ($262.6 billion) is of direct benefit to older Americans.

Obviously, with the federal deficit being what it is, some programs for the elderly will be curtailed or reduced. But since the older citizens are such a potent and often vocal community force, politicians will undoubtedly tread softly before imposing those cuts.