Essay 3
SOC 264
Population growth, Aging, Urbanization, Migration, New Immigration
The United States aging society is one of our greatest challenges with an estimate if 1 in 5 citizens being over the age of 65 by 2030. From 1946 through 1960, the United States experienced the Baby Boom years. With that large population entering their senior years now, our society will experience major changes. There are already problems caring for our aging population so if we don’t address all of these issues now, we will see a frightening spike on all fronts.
Financially, the elderly are already at poverty level Social Security benefits with women suffering the most due to SS laws having to do with whether she made more than her husband, the fact that most made much less due to taking time off of work to raise children. Medicare does not cover all health care costs so without the proper health care, there will be more health problems all swinging back around to an already overburdened worker who will end up paying more taxes. Even though everyone would feel the impact of the huge spike in an over 65 population, the elderly would suffer the most. Heath declines, poverty, abuse at the hands of under paid (due to underfunding) caregivers that are already overworked. When I worked in group homes, I was shocked that the highest pay I could find in any of the companies in this area was $10 for direct care. This includes heavy physical labor for elderly that cannot care for themselves and abuse from the clients due to Alzheimer’s and other aging related issues.
The Essay on Expanding Coverage, Aging Population, and Economic Recovery
... field. Reference Alonso-Zaldivar, R. (September 14, 2014) Expanding Coverage, Aging Population, and Economic Recovery likely to spur Health Care Inflation Retrieved from http://www.startribune/style/health/273892451.html ... generation, while Medicaid will see higher use of services by elderly and disabled beneficiaries”. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 2014) Despite the out of ...
Most caregivers are over worked because a lot of the care givers would call in sick when they reached a certain amount of hours so they could collect differing kinds of government help to keep their own families fed. Like a balancing act of working hard work but stopping to collect the little the government will give them. When a single mother of 2 has to give up $600 in Food Stamps if she works full time for $8/hr before taxes are taken out, why would she work full time? She will work as many hours as she can until she knows it will get her food taken away.
Rules are broken in both nursing homes and assisted living apartments due to not only poor care but underpaid workers but because of the very heavy workloads most of the care givers are forced to handle so they skip certain cares or outings so they can get to the next client. I’ve met some of the most dedicated care givers for elderly one could imagine but the long term workers live under the poverty level with no hopes of raises and have physical disabilities of their own due to the hard work. Mostly knee and back problems. From what I experienced, these workers were far younger than the norm to develop such lifelong physical problems.
“Intergenerational Solidarity” is a term I found on the internet. It speaks of how young parents could come together with their aging relatives so they can have children but leave a lot of the care giving to the aging generation so they can get into the workforce with more of a chance at higher schooling.
