Debate on Aid for the Elderly Focuses on Women
By ROBIN TONER
...Women not only tend to live longer; they also are more economically insecure, have more chronic health conditions and as a result, eventually, become more dependent on those basic safety-net programs, health policy analysts say....
The demographics are clear: At birth, American women's life expectancy is 79.1, six years longer than men's. Women account for 54 percent of the Medicare beneficiaries between the ages of 65 and 74, and 61 percent of the Medicare population between the ages of 75 and 84. They account for 71 percent of the 85-and-over medicare population. Reflecting this skew, women make up more than two-thirds of the nursing home population and two-thirds of the users of home health care services.
Older women also have higher poverty rates than their male counterparts: 17 percent of the women on Medicare have incomes below the federal poverty level ($7,740 in 1996) compared with 11 percent of the men on Medicare, according to a report by the Older Women's League, released by the Clinton administration. Nearly 7 in 10 of the Medicare beneficiaries living below the poverty line are women, that report said.
"The good news is we live longer than men, and the bad news is that we live longer than men," said Judith L. Lichtman, president of the National Partnership for Women and Families, an advocacy group.
Ann F. Lewis, a presidential counselor, said, "When you start talking about the fact that women live longer, are paid less, are far less likely to have pensions with their work, and far more likely to carry the responsibility for caregiving in our families, every woman in the audience starts to nod."
Ms. Lichtman and other advocates say women's groups have long recognized that "aging is a women's issue," because of women's work patterns, caregiving responsibilities, economic status and longevity. But in the last few years, as Social Security and Medicare appeared to be headed for overhauls, advocates say these groups have tried to organize to ensure that women's interests are protected.
"The reason you're hearing more about this now is the programs that women and men, but especially women, rely on for old age, Social Security and Medicare, are under new strains," said Joan Entmacher of the National Women's Law Center, an advocacy group that focuses on women's legal rights....