Seniors, Guns and Money

OP-ED by Paul Krugman in the New York Times
This has to be one of the funniest political stories of recent weeks: On Tuesday, 42 freshmen Republican members of Congress sent a letter urging President Obama to stop Democrats from engaging in “Mediscare” tactics — that is, to stop saying that the Republican budget plan released early last month, which would end Medicare as we know it, is a plan to end Medicare as we know it.

Now, you may recall that the people who signed that letter got their current jobs largely by engaging in “Mediscare” tactics of their own. And bear in mind that what Democrats are saying now is entirely true, while what Republicans were saying last year was completely false. Death panels!
Well, it’s time, said the signatories, to “wipe the slate clean.” How very convenient — and how very pathetic.

Anyway, the truth is that older Americans really should fear Republican budget ideas — and not just because of that plan to dismantle Medicare. Given the realities of the federal budget, a party insisting that tax increases of any kind are off the table — as John Boehner, the speaker of the House, says they are — is, necessarily, a party demanding savage cuts in programs that serve older Americans.

To explain why, let me answer a rhetorical question posed by Professor John Taylor of Stanford University in a recent op-ed article in The Wall Street Journal. He asked, “If government agencies and programs functioned with 19% to 20% of G.D.P. in 2007” — that is, just before the Great Recession — “why is it so hard for them to function with that percentage in 2021?”

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Saving the American Dream: The Heritage Plan to Fix the Debt, Cut Spending, and Restore Prosperity

The conservative Heritage Foundation released a budget plan Tuesday that balances the federal budget far sooner than the House 2012 budget resolution, in part by cutting benefits for current seniors.

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TIME GOES BY | The Fight of Our Lifetimes

by Ronni Bennett

After last week's budget battle, the lines are drawn. Two factions are in control of the debate for the future of the United States:

• The religious zealots who intend to make their ignorance the law of the land
• The corporatocracy who intend to bleed every last dollar from the rest of us for their personal use

Aside from a small number of sane pundits dismissed by the other two groups as leftwing or socialists (horrors!) and a few Congress members (of whom only Bernie Sanders and Harry Reid regularly speak up) hardly anyone, including President Obama, speaks for the people.

The budget debate last week, devolving into an abortion argument over funding of Planned Parenthood, got so stupid I wanted to fire everyone. Crazy, ignorant legislators in Congress apparently never heard of the Hyde Amendment which has banned federal funding of abortions since 1976.

Having defeated the president (who weirdly claimed a win), the zealots were all over the media telling us what we are in store for. Following on Senator Paul Ryan's draconian and fraudulent deficit reduction plan, they made no secret of what's next.

Here is House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va) talking on Fox News Sunday about a proposed $750 billion in cuts to Medicare and Medicaid (transcript via ThinkProgress – my emphasis):

CANTOR: We are in a situation where we have a safety net in place in this country for people who frankly don’t need one. We have to focus on making sure we have a safety net for those who need it.

WALLACE: The Medicaid people — you’re going to cut that by $750 billion.

CANTOR: The Medicaid reductions are off the baseline. So what we’re saying is allow states to have the flexibility to deal with their populations, their indigent populations and the healthcare needs the way they know how to deal with them. Not to impose some mandate from a bureaucrat in Washington.

WALLACE: But you are giving them less money to do it.

CANTOR: In terms of the baseline, that is correct…What we’re saying is there is so much imposition of a mandate that doesn’t relate to the actual quality of care. We believe if you put in place the mechanism that allow for personal choice as far as Medicare is concerned, as well as the programs in Medicaid, that we can actually get to a better resolve and do what most Americans are learning how to do, which is to do more with less.

”Most Americans.” Except for rich people, of course. And don't forget that Social Security is in their sights too. Eric Cantor, again, in March:

“If we want America to be what WE want America to be”?

Which “we” would that be? I sure don't want the America he describes.

It's not just Republicans who are pushing for an increased transfer of wealth from the poor and middle class.

David Plouffe, a White House senior adviser, also made the chat show rounds (emphasis mine):

"'We can't take a machete,' Plouffe said on ABC's This Week. 'We have to take a scalpel, and we're going to have to cut, we're going to have to look carefully.'”


[According to AP, Plouffe also] “said Obama was committed to finding ways for the nation to spend within its means, including reducing Medicare and Medicaid, the government's chief health care programs for seniors and the poor.”

Why in the world are the Democrats – the White House in particular – selling out elders to the zealots and corporations? Perhaps they are counting on support in the 2012 election from the growing number of old Americans who increasingly vote against their own and their offsprings' interest.

Here is another possible reason: The current New York magazine has a graphic showing the previous employment of 14 high-ranking White House advisers. Seven of them, half, are former executives of Goldman Sachs. The rest were hired from Lehman, Citi, UBS, Hartford Financial and JPMorganChase.

These are the people who already stole an estimated $2 trillion in life savings from the people of the United States, an additional $3 trillion in home values through fraudulent mortgage practices, have sent millions of jobs overseas and who pay lower tax rates than you and I.

Now that corporations can contribute unlimited, unreported money to candidates, do you really expect them NOT to do everything else in their vast power to grab all the money that now goes to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security?

With a list like these 14 talking to the President Obama every day, do you really expect him NOT to bow to their demands?

Tomorrow, he will deliver that speech about deficit reduction. I am frightened for us and for all future elders. Obama's past record is not good. He has capitulated to the zealots and corporatocracy at every opportunity and although I hope David Plouffe will be proved wrong, I am not expecting that to be so.

It looks like we are in for the fight of our lifetimes. I don't know if we can win, but there is no choice except to try.

Retiring? A City Can Help Keep You Young, Age You Faster - AARP Bulletin

by: Candy Sagon | from: AARP Bulletin | April 8, 2011

If you want to look and feel younger than your years, maybe you need to move to another city. Like Salt Lake City, San Francisco or Austin, Texas.

Those are the top three cities in RealAge.com's list of the 10 "youngest" cities in America — metropolitan areas with such healthy lifestyles that on average their residents are physically at least two years younger than their chronological age — and many are years younger than that.

RealAge is a website cofounded by Michael Roizen, M.D., chief wellness officer of the Cleveland Clinic, and internist Keith Roach, M.D., with Weill Medical College of Cornell University. The site offers an online health assessment that has been taken by 27 million people since 1999. 

Respondents are asked about their health habits from sleep to smoking to stress. Sample information from 1,000 men and women in each of the 50 largest metropolitan areas was used to come up with the 10 "youngest" and "oldest" cities, based on the health of their residents. The data were adjusted for age differences, so that a city that attracts retirees wasn't penalized when compared with a college town full of young adults.

And the youngest city in terms of health? Salt Lake City. It topped the list because its residents are gung ho for fitness and loathe smoking.

On the other hand, residents of Knoxville and Nashville may need to start worrying. Those two Tennessee cities are numbers one and three on the list of metro areas most likely to make you old before your time, with Greensboro/Winston-Salem/Highpoint, N.C., coming in second.

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Ryan Budget Pulls the Rug Out from Under Seniors, People with Disabilities, and Struggling Families

Community Catalyst Press Release
Contact: Kathy Melley  Office: 617/275-2861  Mobile: 617/791-0708  kmelley@communitycatalyst.org

Joint Statement of Robert Restuccia, Executive Director, Community Catalyst, and Rev. Heyward Wiggins, Co-Chair PICO National Network Steering Committee, on the House Republican budget plan


(BOSTON AND WASHINGTON, DC) - "The House Republican 2012 budget plan released today is a blueprint for disaster. Rather than prioritizing cuts, it seeks to balance the budget on the backs of those who can least afford it - seniors, people with disabilities and struggling families - while asking too little of those who can most afford to sacrifice. Today Medicare and Medicaid work in tandem to help people stay healthy as they age, become disabled, or face hard times. Block grants, privatization and vouchers would take away the health care security that all Americans have relied on since 1965.

"As consumer and faith-based organizations representing millions of American families, we find it abhorrent that people would be made to suffer needlessly or die prematurely because they could not afford to get the care they need. The House plan to gut Medicaid and Medicare will roll back sixty years of social progress in the United States and decimate programs that are a critical part of the safety-net and the backbone of our health care system.

"Block granting Medicaid shifts costs to already financially overburdened states during this recession leads to dramatic cuts in benefits and eligibility for seniors, people with disabilities, children, pregnant women, and working parents, just when people need them most. Families that rely on Medicaid to cover long-term or nursing home care could face enormous financial strain in trying to care for loved ones when their health care costs are no longer picked up by Medicaid.

"Privatizing Medicare is a hand-out to insurance companies, driving up deductibles and co-payments for seniors on Medicare today, and doing nothing to contain health care costs. By 2021, Medicare as we know it would be gone, replaced by a voucher program that would require seniors to buy private insurance. Vouchers lead to rationed health care. As health care costs rise, vouchers would be too small to buy adequate coverage. Many seniors would find they couldn't afford coverage at all and end up uninsured.

"Instead of taking an ax to programs that provide health and economic security to millions of people, federal policy makers should build on the cost containment framework that is already part of the Affordable Care Act and focus on reducing excessive insurance premiums, giving people the care they need to stay out of hospitals and nursing homes, and investing in public health measures to reduce heart disease, diabetes and other chronic illnesses that lead to higher health care costs.

"The savings produced by the House plan come at a great human cost and take our health care system in the wrong direction. We ask Members of Congress to reject this radical proposal to take Medicaid and Medicare away from those who need it most."
###

About Community Catalyst

Community Catalyst is a national non-profit advocacy organization dedicated to quality affordable health care for all. Since 1997, Community Catalyst has been working to build the consumer and community leadership required to transform the American health system. With the belief that this transformation will happen when consumers are fully engaged and have an organized voice, Community Catalyst works in partnership with national, state and local consumer organizations, policymakers, and foundations, providing leadership and support to change the health care system so it serves everyone - especially vulnerable members of society. For more information, visit www.communitycatalyst.org.

PICO National Network is a national network of faith-based community organizations working to expand health care coverage and improve communities in 17 states. www.piconetwork.org

NCOA Launches One Away Campaign for Elder Economic Security; Releases National Poll on Struggles Facing Older Adults

Ken Schwartz, NCOA Director, Marketing & Communications, 202-600-3131, ken.schwartz@ncoa.org

Washington, D.C. (March 31, 2011) – More than 13 million older adults are considered economically insecure, living on just $21,780 a year or less. Every day, these seniors, and millions of Boomers, have to choose whether to pay for food, housing, utilities, or out-of-pocket for medication costs. They live one bad break, one accident, or one layoff away from economic disaster.

To spotlight their struggles—and call for change—the National Council on Aging (NCOA) is launching One Away, an innovative, national advocacy campaign that uses video to allow older adults to tell their own stories, in their own words. One Away videos and stories are available at OneAway.org.

“We are already receiving real stories of seniors who are struggling,” said Sandra Nathan, senior vice president for economic security at NCOA. “It’s clear that vulnerable older adults are in desperate need of help and want to be heard.”

National Poll Shows Depth of Problem

Almost two-thirds (63%) of adults aged 18+ said they or an older adult they know is struggling to make ends meet in today’s economy, according to the new One Away poll. A majority (62%) also knows that one out of three older adults relies on Social Security for over 90% of their income.

Commissioned by NCOA and conducted online in March 2011 by Harris Interactive, the One Away poll of 2,526 adults aged 18 and older also found that 80% of adults know that older workers who lose a job are more likely to face very long-term unemployment, up to 99 weeks or more.

In spite of this harsh reality, the House of Representatives recently passed legislation to cut funding by 64% for the Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP), our nation’s only jobs program designed to help older Americans in need. The cut would result in the loss of over 83,000 jobs.

At the same time, some economic challenges facing older adults are less well known to the public:

Fewer than 1 out of 5 people (19%) are aware of the scale of senior credit card debt, which averages $10,000.


Only 34% are aware that people over age 65 make up the fastest-growing segment of the population seeking bankruptcy protection.


Almost three-quarters (72%) either underestimated or did not know that nearly 6 million seniors are at risk of going hungry every day.

“The struggles seniors are facing are all too often overlooked or dismissed,” said James Firman, president and CEO of NCOA. “This campaign is about elevating their voices, and we need Congress to catch up to the realities of their constituents and develop concrete solutions to make life better for our seniors.”

As part of the One Away campaign, NCOA has also published A Blueprint for Increasing the Economic Security of Older Adults: Reauthorizing the Older Americans Act. The report outlines specific recommendations to improve elders’ economic security through reauthorization of the Older Americans Act (OAA), which is scheduled to occur this year.

Funding for the One Away campaign was provided by The Atlantic Philanthropies.

Combo Regimen Best to Keep Obese Seniors Going

By Todd Neale, Staff Writer, MedPage Today

Exercise and weight loss both appear to help obese older adults maintain function, although combining the two provides the most benefit, a randomized controlled trial showed.

After one year, participants 65 and older who participated in both a diet and exercise program had greater gains in physical performance than those who did either one alone, according to Dennis Villareal, MD, of the New Mexico VA Health Care System in Albuquerque, and colleagues.

The combined strategy also resulted in the most consistent gains on several secondary endpoints, including strength, balance, gait, and quality of life, the researchers reported in the March 31 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
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National Council on Aging: Ask Congress to Protect Services for Vulnerable Seniors

Congress is currently proposing massive cuts in programs that provide jobs, affordable housing, and volunteer opportunities for older Americans.

Negotiations are now taking place on a historic budget-cutting bill that will likely be voted on the first week of April.

The House has already passed a bill that would:

• Cut the Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP) by 64%—eliminating jobs for more than 83,000 poor seniors in need of work and potentially shutting down the program in many communities across the nation.
• Eliminate funding for Senior Corps, “firing” more than 450,000 senior volunteers nationwide and denying vital services to vulnerable older adults, children, and their families in communities across the nation.
• Reduce by two-thirds Section 202 Supportive Housing for the Elderly at a time when 1.3 million seniors have worst-case housing needs and increasing numbers are homeless.

Tell your Senators and Representative to reject cuts in jobs, housing, and volunteer programs for seniors!
Please use the sample letter below, edit it to put it in your own words, or make it even more powerful by adding a personal story about how an older adult you know is struggling to get a job or affordable housing or would be denied help or volunteer opportunities under Senior Corps.
Let your elected officials know that their constituents need help!

Recipients

• Your Senators
• Your Representative

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Tai Chi Helps Fight Depression, Gentle Exercise, Movement Meditation - AARP Bulletin

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Older adults who suffer from depression may find lasting relief by practicing a flowing Chinese martial art called tai chi in addition to receiving more traditional treatment, according to a new study.
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Nation’s First LGBT Homesharing Program Has Found a Match

By Tony Peregrin

The Golden Girls—Dorothy, Rose, Blanche and Sophia—had each other to exchange quips about men and life, usually over slices of cheesecake. In real life, many older LGBT adults in Boystown looking for companionship, and maybe a little extra income, are turning to the nation’s first LGBT homesharing program to find it.

The homesharing program at the Center on Halsted is a free service that matches LGBT seniors with younger renters who can help with chores and other household tasks in exchange for reduced rent.

The homesharing program officially launched in December 2010, and as of last month, the program has its first match: a gay male renter and a lesbian homesharing provider.

“There are other homesharing programs across the country, but our program is specifically designed for the LGBT community,” said Britta Larson, 31, homesharing manager at the Center. “As LGBT older adults age, they can become very isolated and, sometimes, they struggle to remain in their own homes. I have had older adults that were living comfortably in a lovely condo, but when their partner passed away, they were not eligible for their partner’s social security or pension, and now they are in a dire financial situation.”
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A Few Tax Tips for the Elderly - NYTimes.com

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By PATRICK EGAN

With the tax-filing deadline bearing down, many of us are wrestling with financial issues particular to elder care. Opportunities to lower tax bills abound, thank goodness, but the details are often complicated or confusing — and most seniors can’t afford to leave money on the table. Here are a few details to keep in mind this year.
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TIME GOES BY | GAY AND GRAY: Meet David

by Jan Adams

When I think about topics for these Gay and Gray columns, I always worry a little about whether I'm failing to look adequately for material about or of relevance to gay male elders.

In my generation of LGBT people - a generation in which most of us began our lives in the closet and many of us emerged in public only in mid-life - there's often a pronounced cultural separation between the genders, perhaps especially in larger cities.

Many old lesbians know mostly other old lesbians; they have made intentional families with other lesbians and evolved a woman-centered culture. Old gay men have their own sub-culture; many saw their friendship networks devastated by the AIDS epidemic; they spent a life in peril and sometimes hiding and tend to stick with their own.

I feel very lucky that I happen to belong to a church community where we have quite a few of both genders of gay people - and lots of straight people too. Truly mixed communities are somewhat rare in our age group. That's too bad. We can enjoy each other.

So thinking about this month's column, I went looking for something from a gay male elder to share. I think you'll enjoy David. At 70, this expressive, British, working-class man decided his life story might be something younger people, especially gay men, could appreciate.
He got a lot of positive responses to this introductory piece, so he made four more video clips, carrying forward the story of how he grew up, joined the Royal Air Force (RAF), voluntarily left the service so he could be more open about his sexuality and in retirement has apparently taken full advantage of the protected legal status gays now enjoy in the United Kingdom.

They are way ahead of the United States. Britain long ago allowed gays to serve openly in the military, protected us from employment discrimination and the police campaigned against gay bashing.

In Part 2 of David's story, available here, he talks about his early youth, about realizing at age 12 that he was different. By 15, he was out of school and working.

He had some encounters including in movie theaters and "people [men] took an interest in me; I was always particular and very careful."

Yes, the young David was a looker. In Part 3 (here), he describes joining the Royal Air Force and realizing for the first time that he was not alone.

"There were thousands of airmen and among them, there were 100s and 100s and 100s of gay men, like me...it was instant dismissal if you were caught...but we lived in huts, sometimes there was movement between beds at 2 and 3 in the morning...it happened."

David loved the RAF. He served in various isolated Middle Eastern posts in an all male environment. He thrived. No one asked any questions because there were no women on the posts. He had one or two serious affairs, but the guys were always posted away and the romances died.

In Part 4 (here), David follows up with the story of his civilian life - the United Kingdom had decriminalized homosexuality and he was able to do the same job he'd done for the RAF as a civilian! He urges gay men to come out.

"If you are wondering how to approach your friends -- if someone asks you if you are gay, just tell them...I say that because, once you come out, you will then find out who your friends are!"

He discovered he had a lot of good friends.

Finally David recorded what he calls a Postscript. He thanks all the people who have thanked him - and speaks directly to young people who have been sending comments. "You'll be okay...you will start to believe in yourself..."
This wonderful sequence of videos makes me wish that more elders of all sexual orientations would record their stories. David is saying very much the same sort of thing as the folks who recently responded to bullying of gay teens by recording "it gets better" messages.

Even though these times are hard and sometimes frightening, I suspect that most readers here can agree that we've more and more lived into the solid essence of ourselves as we age. We've got life wisdom to share with younger folks. Maybe we should record more of it.

Simple Rules for Better Sleep - NYTimes.com

Image via CrunchBase
By PAULA SPAN

This sounds way too good to be true: a quick, effective solution to the insomnia that plagues an estimated 15 to 30 percent of older adults — without drugs, without even needing to consult a physician.

But a University of Pittsburgh team, testing its method on 79 seniors with chronic insomnia (average age: 72), has reported very encouraging results. The treatment required just two explanatory sessions (the first lasts 45 to 60 minutes, the second about half an hour) with a nurse-practitioner, plus two brief follow-up phone calls, over the course of a month.
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‘Too Late’ for Some Tsunami Victims to Rebuild on Japanese Coast - NYTimes.com

Image via CrunchBaseBy MICHAEL WINES

A week after the tsunami obliterated most of this northern Japanese city’s seafront and not a little of its inland, the first handful of shopkeepers and their employees were outdoors shoveling mud and hauling wreckage from their businesses, signs of rebirth after this region’s worst catastrophe in memory.

Kunio Imakawa, a 75-year-old barber, was not among them.

Mr. Imakawa and his wife, Shizuko, lost his three-chair barber shop, their second-floor apartment and all their belongings in the tsunami. Rebuilding would mean starting from scratch. And he said that simple math, calculated in yen and in years, showed it was not worth the effort.


“Young people would think, ‘Maybe there’s another way,’ ” he said last week as he sprawled with 1,600 other refugees in a chilly local sports arena. “But I’m too old. My legs have problems."

“It’s too late to start over.”
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Why Are The Elderly So Vulnerable To Pneumonia?

A study featured on the cover of the March 15 Journal of Immunology is providing insight into why the elderly are so vulnerable to pneumonia and other bacterial infections.

The study has been published online in advance of print.

Compared with younger adults, the elderly are at higher risk of becoming seriously ill or dying from pneumonia. Moreover, vaccines against the disease are less effective in the elderly.

To help understand why, Loyola researchers examined two types of immune system cells, macrophages and B cells, located in specialized areas in the spleens of mice. (Macrophages gobble up bacteria, while B cells produce antibodies that fight bacteria.)

Macrophages and B cells appeared to be just as effective in old mice as they were in younger mice. But there were fewer of them.

"If we knew how to replenish these cells, we might be able to lower the risk of bacterial infections in the elderly," said senior author Pamela Witte, a professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine. "This is an unexplored area in aging."

The finding also could provide clues to developing vaccines against pneumococcal pneumonia that would be more effective in the elderly, said first author Shirin Birjandi, who is completing her PhD at Loyola.

For example, Birjandi said, current vaccines instruct B cells to make antibodies against bacteria that cause pneumonia. But if humans are like mice, the elderly will have fewer B cells. So it might make more sense to develop vaccines that instead target other immune system cells, Birjandi said.

In their study, Loyola researchers examined B cells and macrophages that form microscopic rings in the spleen called marginal zones. These marginal zones form protective rings, preventing bacteria from passing through.

Photographs taken by the researchers show that in the spleens of young mice, macrophages form distinct rings in the marginal zones. (One of these photos appears on the cover of the Journal of Immunology.) In old mice, however, the photographs show that marginal zone rings are dramatically disrupted. (In humans, the equivalent ages of the old mice would be between 70 and 80.)

Researchers wrote that understanding changes such as these "is important for developing more efficient therapies for preventing diseases, such as bacterial pneumonia, that have shown to be highly detrimental in the elderly."

Other co-authors of the study are Jill Ippolito and Anand Ramadorai.

The research was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health.

Source:
Loyola University Health System

Older Adults Not Getting Recommended Preventive Services

Critical gaps exist between older Americans who receive potentially lifesaving preventive services and those who do not, according to a new report from agencies of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Clinical prevention services examined in the report include vaccinations that protect against influenza and pneumococcal disease (e.g., bloodstream infections, meningitis, and pneumonia), screenings for the early detection of breast cancer, colorectal cancer, diabetes, lipid disorders, and osteoporosis, and smoking cessation counseling.

The report was published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in partnership with HHS' Administration on Aging, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

The document, "Enhancing Use of Clinical Preventive Services Among Older Adults: Closing the Gap," highlights the need to promote preventive services for adults age 65 and older, especially among minorities.

"Millions of Americans are not getting proven clinical preventive services that we know can prevent disease and improve quality of life," said Lynda Anderson, Ph.D., director of the Healthy Aging Program at CDC and one of the primary authors. "The report takes stock of current levels of recommended services by older adults, and it becomes obvious that many of these services are woefully underutilized."

About 10,000 Americans turn 65 every day; by 2030, about 1 in 5 Americans will be 65 older.

"We know prevention is critical to healthy living and independence," said Kathy Greenlee, assistant secretary for aging. "It is important that we continue our efforts at the community level to reach all older Americans. We want to ensure that they are aware of the preventive benefits which are available to them, including those made possible by the Affordable Care Act."

The report also addresses the use of preventive services by diverse populations. It says 49 percent of Asian/Pacific Islanders and 47 percent of Hispanics reported not being screened for colorectal cancer, in comparison to 34 percent of whites. More than 50 percent of Hispanics, 47 percent of blacks and Asian/Pacific Islanders, and 36 percent of whites report never receiving a pneumococcal vaccination.

According to the report, challenges underlying these disparities are complex and reach beyond the traditional health care arena of patient-provider interactions. Older adults may not be aware of the services recommended for their age group or may not know that the services are covered by Medicare, the report said.

"The section of the report titled `Making a Difference' features innovative strategies applied at the local, state, and national levels to increase the use of preventive services in underserved communities," said Wayne Giles, M.D., M.S., director, Division of Adult and Community Health at CDC. "By putting into practice effective community and clinical strategies, we can dramatically reduce the gaps highlighted in this report."

The showcased activities include: promotion of policies to increase community access, making services available in convenient community settings, such as providing influenza vaccinations at polling places on election days, and building awareness through media.

Non-federal organizations contributing to the report include AARP, American Medical Association, Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, Gerontological Society of America, National Association of Area Agencies on Aging, National Association of Chronic Disease Directors, National Association of County and City Health Officials, and National Association of States United for Aging and Disabilities.

"Giving Americans access to quality, proven preventive services in their communities is a crucial part of improving the health of Americans and lowering their health care costs in the long run," said AARP board member Catherine Georges, R.N., Ed.D.

Contributors to and supporters of this report agree that the use of such services should be a high priority of community and health systems alike. While the benefit of expanded insurance coverage is substantial, it is also important that older adults take advantage of preventive services on a regular basis to ensure good health.

"If we can help patients age 65 and older get the recommended preventive screenings and regular immunizations, we could significantly reduce unnecessary illness," said Edward Langston, M.D., an American Medical Association board member.

To view the full report and for more information about CDC′s health aging activities visit here.

Source:
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Hospitals Building Emergency Rooms for the Elderly - NYTimes.com

Image via CrunchBase
By ALYSON MARTIN and NUSHIN RASHIDIAN

Hospitals nationwide are trying to redefine the E.R. experience for the elderly by building facilities dedicated solely to their needs. St. Joseph Mercy’s parent company, Trinity Health System, opened the nation’s first senior E.R. at Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring, Md., in 2008 and plans to put one in 19 other hospitals by 2013. Senior E.R.’s, also called geriatric emergency departments, also have opened in Texas, New Jersey, Missouri and Kansas. By year’s end, Mount Sinai Medical Center plans to open Manhattan’s first such facility.

“We’re going to have an increase in people over the age of 65 who are going to take their medical problems with them to hospital emergency departments,” said Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association. “The fact that we’re really preparing for that wave, I think, is important.”


The drive to build senior E.R.’s is motivated in part by hospitals’ desire to find an edge in the increasingly competitive health care marketplace.
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Georgia Woman Certified as World's Oldest Person

Image via CrunchBaseGeorgia's 114-year-old Besse Cooper got a visit from Guinness World Records to certify her as the world's oldest living person.

Surrounded by family, Cooper accepted a plaque during a small ceremony at a Monroe nursing home Thursday morning.

Her son, 75-year-old Sid Cooper, said previously that relatives never imagined she would live to be the world's oldest person.
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Medicare Considers Paying for STD Screening

By Emily P. Walker, Washington Correspondent, MedPage Today

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is considering whether to pay for sexually transmitted disease testing for elderly and disabled Medicare beneficiaries.

Medicare already pays for HIV tests, but a National Coverage Analysis (NCA) posted by CMS on Thursday announced that the agency is considering whether to include coverage for testing for chlamydia, gonorrhea, hepatitis B, and syphilis, and to pay for counseling to prevent sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).

Most of the tests would be aimed at detecting infections in high-risk groups, such as pregnant disabled women.

Medicare covers about 39 million people over the age of 65, and nearly eight million people with disabilities who are younger than 65.

The announcement comes as sexually transmitted disease rates among the elderly are increasing. Nearly one-quarter of people living with HIV in the U.S. are older than 50, and rates of chlamydia among men ages 45 to 64 tripled from 1996 to 2006, and doubled among women in the same age group, according to statistics from the CDC.

Researchers explain the increase in a number of ways, including that the elderly are more susceptible to disease, far less likely to use condoms than younger people, and excluded from virtually every STD-prevention educational program.

And then there's the Viagra explanation.
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Moderate Exercise May Improve Memory in Older Adults

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A new study in older adults shows that brisk walking can increase the size of a brain region involved in memory formation. The finding suggests that moderate physical exercise can help protect the brain as we age.

The brain region called the hippocampus begins to shrink in older adults as part of the normal aging process. This can contribute to forgetfulness, memory loss and increased risk of dementia. Physical fitness is known to be associated with both increased hippocampus size and improved cognitive ability. However, it was unclear how exercise might affect people who’d already had some hippocampus deterioration as a result of aging.
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