Past Mother’s Day Reports

2004
A Poor Prognosis: Healthcare Costs and Aging Women

Healthcare costs increased by double digits during the last few years. Quick fixes in the last decade simply slowed increases for several years and once again women at risk of financial security as they age are often at a loss in obtaining affordable adequate healthcare. OWL has advocated for change in the American healthcare system since its inception in 1980. Improvements have been limited and we find again ourselves experiencing a healthcare crisis.

2003
State of Older Women in America

Today in America, the average woman age 65 and over lives six years longer than the average man. As a result, she is typically widowed and living alone. She struggles to make ends meet on an annual income of $15,615 (compared with over $29,171 for men). During her lifetime she probably spent 17 years caring for children and 18 years caring for elderly parents. Her retirement income is also smaller because she probably did not receive a pension, and was paid less than the average man. As a result, she receives lower Social Security benefits. She spends a higher proportion of her income on housing costs — leaving less for vital necessities such as utilities, medical costs, food, and transportation. The average older woman spends 20 percent of her income each year on out-of-pocket health care costs.

Life patterns and public policy dynamically intersect to create this familiar picture of the average older woman in America. The State of Older Women in America details some of the issues that contribute to and perpetuate this pattern, and highlights recommendations for addressing these critical concerns — issues that are of increasing importance in our aging society.

2002
Social Security Privatization: A False Promise for Women

The Social Security system is an embodiment of the long-standing American principle of social insurance, providing nearly universal coverage for workers and their families through a pooling of resources, benefits, and risk. For women, poverty in old age is often rooted in the realities that shaped their lives early on: the reality of the wage gap, the reality of caregiving, and the reality of flexible jobs that offer few benefits, especially pensions.

Privatization plans would divert Social Security payroll taxes into individually owned private accounts, shifting the system from shared risk and collective gain among workers to private accounts that would leave workers to sink or swim on their own.

To improve Social Security for women, Congress should amend the law to recognize women’s caregiving work; increase benefits and simplify the rules for widows, divorced women, disabled widows, and low wage workers; offer coverage to same-sex couples; and remedy the Government Pension Offset and Windfall Elimination Provision’s effect on women.

2001
Faces of Caregiving

“Informal caregiving” is a catch-all phrase that refers to unpaid care and financial support provided by family members or friends to people with chronic illness or disabilities. It is an irreplaceable source of long-term care and support in America. As many as 52 million Americans, or 31 percent of the adult population, are informal caregivers. Almost one-quarter of American households provide care to friends or relatives age 50 or older. Gender makes a difference when it comes to informal caregiving. Nearly three-quarters of informal caregivers to seniors are women. The typical informal caregiver is a married woman in her mid-forties. She is employed full time and spends an average of 18 hours per week caregiving.

The report reminds us that women provide the majority of informal caregiving — and often pay a steep price for their efforts. Caregivers suffer reduced wages and job security, which inevitably lead to diminished retirement security. Informal caregivers also experience emotional and physical stress that can take a toll on their own health.

2000
Prescription for Change: Why Women Need a Medicare Drug Benefit

The absence of prescription drug coverage in the Medicare program creates financial hardship for many older women. Beginning at midlife, many women develop one or more chronic illnesses for which drug therapy is often the treatment of choice. Eight out of ten women on Medicare — 17 million women — use prescription drugs regularly. Women often pay for these medications themselves.

The good news is that for the first time in decades policy makers are debating options for providing a prescription drug benefit under Medicare. It is critical that these options be assessed in terms of their impact on women. Older women are one of the nation’s most vulnerable groups and prescription drug coverage must meet their needs.

1999
The Face of Medicare is Woman You Know

Medicare, the nation’s health insurance program for older women and men, is not typically thought of as a “women’s program.” But it should be. Almost six in ten individuals receiving Medicare are women and more than seven in ten over the age of 85 are women. Over time, the percentage of Medicare beneficiaries who are women will only increase. More and more, the face of Medicare is a woman’s face.

The Face of Medicare is Woman You Know shines a spotlight on Medicare as a women’s issue. It shows that while Medicare provides crucial health care for older women, the gaps in the program and the limitation of supplemental insurance leaves women vulnerable to unaffordable out-of-pocket medical costs.