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Public Policy & Aging E-Newsletter
Volume 2, Number 6, November 2008

This bimonthly e-newsletter highlights key developments and viewpoints in the field of aging policy from a wide variety of sources, including articles and reports circulating in the media, academy, think tanks, private sector, government and nonprofit organizations.

The goal of this email publication is to reach teachers, students, and citizens interested in aging-related issues, especially those who may not have sufficient access to policy information disseminated both in Washington and around the country.

I. THIS ISSUE'S MAJOR POLICY STORY: THE ECONOMIC CRISIS

Regular readers of the Public Policy & Aging E-Newsletter know that the editors generally organize the contents in a certain way: we include reputable, relevant articles and reports that address (through the lens of policymaking and policy evaluation) the needs and challenges of older people in aging societies here and abroad. The middle sections of this issue conform to this format. But the dramatic turn of economic events globally forced us to scrap the "major policy story" that we had intended to highlight. Instead, we lead with the REAL story, one that few of us would have anticipated-"the economic/financial crisis." Sarah Frey and Greg O'Neill in our Washington office deserve our great thanks for broadening their purview as they searched for essays that will give us a sense of how this major historical downturn may affect retirement plans (will I retire?), investments and mortgages (can I move out of the hurricane belt?), etc. We then end with a section on Election 2008. Of particular note are the positions that Senators McCain and Obama take on health care (is broad-scale reform now more likely or too costly to consider?) and an astute analysis of those who remain undecided in this critical moment.

--Andy Achenbaum

A. How Is the Economic Turmoil Affecting Older Americans?: A new Urban Institute fact sheet examines the impact of the recent and ongoing economic turmoil on older Americans' retirement savings, home values, and retirement decisions: retirement accounts have lost an estimated $1.6 trillion during the past 12 months; older adults' economic security is particularly vulnerable because they have less time to wait for the markets to recover; and working beyond traditional retirement age can generate vital income for seniors, but the retail trade--the largest occupation for older workers--has seen record job losses this year.

B. Are Retirement Savings Too Exposed to Market Risk?: Just released by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, this issue brief documents the past year's declines in pension assets and where those declines occurred. Specifically, the declines were divided equally between defined benefit and defined contribution plans. Because defined contribution plans are becoming more prevalent, individuals can expect to more fully bear the brunt of market turmoil in the future. This brief emphasizes the need to construct arrangements where the full market risk does not fall on pension participants.

C. A First Look at Older Americans and the Mortgage Crisis: This timely AARP report provides the first-ever analysis of data on the mortgage crisis by age. Key findings include: more than 684,000 homeowners age 50 and over were delinquent, were in foreclosure, or lost their homes during the six month period ending December 2007; older African Americans and Hispanics had higher foreclosure rates than whites; and older Americans appear particularly vulnerable to home price declines and to subprime loans. Most significantly, data reveal that many older Americans may not be able to recover from losing a home.

D. Feeling the Economic Pinch: A MetLife QuickPOLL of Americans 60+: This MetLife Mature Market Institute report summarizes a sample of age 60+ adults' feelings about the current U.S. economy and the specific actions they are taking or are considering as a result. It answers questions like: how long do you think this economic downturn will last?; where have you cut back?; and will this downturn affect your work and/or retirement plans?

E. Protecting Senior Investors: Compliance, Supervisory and Other Practices Used by Financial Services Firms in Serving Investors: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission recently released a report outlining practices that firms can use to strengthen their services for older investors as they approach and enter retirement. This report provides practical examples to assist firms in working with senior investors in an ethical, respectful, and informed manner: communicating effectively with senior investors; training and educating firm employees on senior-specific issues, like how to identify signs of diminished capacity and elder abuse; advertising and marketing to senior investors; and ensuring the appropriateness of investments.

II. WHAT’S HAPPENING IN WASHINGTON?

A. The Rescue Plan: What it Means to You: This AARP Bulletin article lists specifically how middle-aged and older adults can expect the $700 billion government financial rescue package to affect them, both in their current daily lives and in their retirement.

B. Medicare Now and in the Future: This Kaiser Family Foundation report addresses a number of future challenges Medicare will face, including financing care for future generations without burdening beneficiaries, taxpayers, or the economy; further developing the role of private plans in Medicare; fine-tuning the current structure of the Medicare prescription drug benefit; and making health and long-term care more affordable for beneficiaries experiencing rising health costs. The report recognizes that the outcome of the 2008 presidential election will significantly affect the direction and pace of reform, and therefore provides a list of questions intended to help discern the candidates' approaches to Medicare reform.

C. Unemployment Insurance and Older Workers in the United States: This issue brief, published by the International Longevity Center-USA, addresses unemployment among the older American population in a time of both increased health and longevity coupled with increased income and pension insecurity. The brief answers 3 key questions: how broad is the unemployment problem among older persons?; how likely is it that older people will be in the labor force?; and how significant is the risk of unemployment after 65? It then recommends improvements in the rules governing unemployment insurance to benefit older workers.

III. WHAT’S HAPPENING AROUND THE COUNTRY?

A. Older Worker Profiles: The U.S. Census Bureau launched five new state reports in its series of older worker profiles presenting a detailed picture of workers 55 and older at the state, metropolitan area, and county levels in Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Tennessee, and Washington. Each report highlights the age composition of the state's work force, job gains and losses for older workers by industry, industries in which older workers are concentrated, and job stability and earnings. Previously released reports are also available for Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, New Jersey, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Vermont, and Wisconsin.

B. Statehealthfacts.org Interactive U.S. Map: The Kaiser Family Foundation created statehealthfacts.org, an interactive U.S. map that provides state-by-state information on many health categories: demographics and the economy; health status; health coverage and uninsured; Medicaid and SCHIP; health costs and budgets; Medicare; managed care and health insurance; providers and service use; minority health; women's health; and HIV/AIDS. Click on a state for information and to find out how it compares to the U.S. overall.

C. Do State Economics or Individual Characteristics Determine Whether Older Men Work?: This brief, published by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, addresses the significantly different labor force participation rates of men aged 55-64 across the United States. Key findings include: work effort of men 55-64 ranges from 40% in West Virginia to nearly 90% in South Dakota; and individual characteristics are more influential in determining whether an individual man is working than are state characteristics. This brief emphasizes that these trends have significant implications for the pressures that states will face as the baby boomers start to retire.

IV. WORTH NOTING

A. How Do Age Discrimination Laws Affect Older Workers?: This issue brief from the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College explores whether the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) and similar state laws have helped or hurt older workers. On the one hand, the legislation may have prevented companies from unfairly dismissing older workers. On the other hand, the fear of lawsuits may have dissuaded employers from hiring older workers in the first place.

B. Seniors and Drug Prices in Canada and the United States, 2008 Edition: This Fraser Institute report analyzes prices for the drugs most commonly prescribed to Canadian seniors in 2007, and compares Canadian and American prices for brand name and generic prescription drugs. The most notable findings include: Canadian seniors pay an average 101% more than American seniors for identical generic drugs; and Canadian seniors pay an average 57% less than their American counterparts for identical brand name drugs. The report concludes that higher Canadian generic prices are caused by government policies that shield pharmacies and manufacturers from market forces that would put downward pressure on generic prices.

C. CMS Discharge Checklist and Ask Medicare: The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently released two resources to assist family caregivers of Medicare beneficiaries. First, CMS developed a 16-item checklist to help patients and their family caregivers prepare to leave a hospital, nursing home or other health care setting and ensure they have a clear understanding of the patient's needs once they return home. Second, CMS launched the website Ask Medicare that answers questions about Medicare coverage and benefits, provides links to key organizations that assist caregivers and beneficiaries, and offers information and tools to help caregivers address common problems.

V. WHAT'S HAPPENING ABROAD?

A. Financing Demographic Shifts: Pension and Healthcare Scenarios to 2030: Released by the World Economic Forum, this report explores the implications of three global scenarios for the state of pensions and health care in 2030. All scenarios point to an urgent need for new forms of collaboration between key stakeholders--individuals, financial institutions, healthcare providers, employers, and governments--to finance the ongoing well-being of current and future generations.

B. Social Security Programs Throughout the World: Europe, 2008: The U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA) and the International Social Security Association (ISSA) released this publication outlining the current social security programs in Europe as a whole as well as in individual European countries. The SSA and ISSA intend for these updates to showcase different ways of approaching social security challenges to enable countries to adapt their social security systems to the evolving needs of individuals, households, and families.

C. Aging Characterises the Demographic Perspectives of the European Societies: This European Commission report describes the results of the 2008 population projections for Europe, assuming a scenario of demographic convergence based on assumptions for fertility, mortality and migration. Highlights of this study include: the share of European people aged 65+ is projected to increase from 17.1% in 2008 to 30.0% in 2060; and whereas in 2008, there are 4 persons of working age for every person aged 65 or over, in 2060 the ratio is expected to be 2 to 1.

VI. SPECIAL SECTION: PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION 2008

A. Exclusive Interviews with John McCain and Barack Obama: AARP spoke with Senators John McCain and Barack Obama about health care, Social Security, retirement plans, and taxes. To read their exclusive interview with Barack Obama, click here. To read their exclusive interview with John McCain, click here.

B. 2008 Presidential Candidates: Health Care Issues Side-by-Side: The Kaiser Family Foundation added two new resources to its health08.org website detailing John McCain's and Barack Obama's stances on key health care issues. The first includes a comparison of the candidates' health reform proposals. The second is an interactive tool that allows users to customize a side-by-side comparison of the candidates' positions on a range of health care issues not necessarily addressed in their health care reform proposals. These comparisons are based on information compiled from the candidates' websites, speeches, and campaign debates and were reviewed by both campaigns prior to posting.

C. Undecided Voters in the November Presidential Election: A National Survey: An AARP-commissioned survey of undecided voters assesses the likelihood that these voters will vote in the November 2008 election and the issues that are central to these voters in determining which candidate to support. Findings include: undecided voters tend to be older, female, married, well-educated, almost always vote in presidential elections, and moderate; and over half of undecided voters say that regardless of who wins the election, economic issues and taxes should be addressed by the President in his administration's first 100 days.

VII. PERSPECTIVES ON POLICY: ROB HUDSON, EDITOR, PP&AR

The latest issue of Public Policy & Aging Report explores "The Evolving Aging Network." It features an up-to-date review of how the Older Americans Act and the aging network have evolved to present, and an assessment of the challenges facing the aging network in addressing the needs and fostering the abilities of community-based elders today and tomorrow.

The lead article by Carol O'Shaughnessy represents the definitive statement of the legislative and budgetary developments that have led to where the OAA and the network stand today. Suzanne Kunkel and Abbe Lackmeyer amplify many of the issues anticipated in O'Shaughnessy's treatment, reporting on results from a national survey of Area Agencies on Aging. Richard Browdie and Melissa Castora find both continuity and change in the network's development. In particular, the authors are struck by the political vagaries at the state level that network agencies encounter; governors, cabinet officials, and legislative committees are in constant flux, and agencies must be accountable to these state-level actors as well as to "the feds." Jeffrey Kahana and Lawrence Force use a different lens in viewing the network-one that sees many of the same vulnerable clients who are potentially in need of long-term care services but who, at the same time, have much to offer their communities. The authors urge that civic engagement efforts directed to older adults must involve the vulnerable as well as the advantaged. So doing gives "community" both a new meaning (in the context of long-term care) and an old one (in the context of maintaining elders as vital members in their communities in a manner in keeping with much of the original intent of the OAA).

To purchase the current issue of PP&AR, or to subscribe, click here, and then click on "NAAS Publications."

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Newsletter Editors: Sarah Frey and Greg O'Neill, National Academy on an Aging Society; Andy Achenbaum, University of Houston.

The Public Policy and Aging E-Newsletter is supported in part by a grant from the AARP Office of Academic Affairs.