---

---

Released: July 19, 2011

Medicare doesn’t cover many health-care expenses

Source: N.C. Alzenman, Washington Post

Helen Johnson gave a welcoming smile to the group of older men and women who had assembled at the senior center in the Maryland Eastern Shore town of Snow Hill on a recent evening. All of them were caregivers for spouses or parents with debilitating illnesses. “We’re very concerned about you,” began Johnson, 74, who organizes support programs for a nonprofit agency serving the elderly. “You spend so much time tending to your loved ones, you don’t have time for your self.” But Johnson’s comforting message masked worries of her own. There was the gnawing pain in her arthritic knee, which gets so bad by late afternoon that she can’t stand up for more than a few minutes at a time. There was her dread of the drive home after dark, which has become difficult as her eyesight has weakened. And perhaps most wearying, there was the knowledge that despite her dislike of working evening hours, she had no alternative. Nearly a decade after reaching retirement age and qualifying for Medicare, Johnson cannot afford to give up her job. Even with the paycheck it brings, her income is only a few notches above the federal poverty level. Her situation is so common that it presents an uncomfortable — and not always acknowledged — challenge for policymakers seeking to rein in spending on Medicare: Nearly half of Medicare recipients have incomes at or below 200 percent of poverty — $21,780 for an individual, $29,420 for a couple.

Read Full Article: Medicare doesn’t cover many health-care expenses