Pension and Health Cuts Are Recipe for Poverty

“Retirees Said to Need $200,000 for Healthcare” (March 7) hit me particularly hard.

I am an 81-year-old retired Los Angeles County employee whose basic healthcare needs are met. I earned my pension and health coverage.

But I have many friends and acquaintances who worked at least as hard and as long as I did but who in their golden years are having serious problems making ends meet.

Why? Because healthcare in this country is broken, as are the promises of a secure retirement. Many workers from both the private and public sectors are approaching retirement after losing their pensions as well as their healthcare coverage.

The worst part is that this recipe for poverty seems to be accepted as inevitable by the bottom-line mentality that dominates public discourse.

The America I grew up in built and valued a strong middle class. We believed that society would improve the lives of working people. But now it seems that people are on their own, and the middle class dream is in danger of elimination.

For shame!

Sol Fingold

Beverly Hills