Latest Breaking News

there are real world issues here for seniors! I screamed bloody murder when they came out with Medicare Advantage. I had to decide on my Mom's insurance for the year, in addition to what would cover me and my family, and let me tell you... I will NEVER get those precious hours back, and we'll not even talk about the emotional headaches involved.

Most seniors do not want to admit that their marbles aren't rolling the way they always rolled. After doing this for decades for themselves, they either do not give it up easily because it would mean letting someone else decide something for them about their lives or they have the opposite reaction... throw it across the room and say "I've been with Blue Cross all my life. Why the hell do I need to this now?" (Guess which group my mother was in.) But that just MA.

Now imagine a 91 year old, still able to live on her own (with some outside help) who has to track down the nearest SSA office that hasn't been closed, gather all associated paperwork, and find her way there. It's unfair to make her do that, and it's also unfair to expect her to understand and accomplish all that can be done online. Are there help offices opening up that cater to seniors' needs with this stuff?

I taught my mom how to use a computer when she was in her 30's. I even got her into coding her own websites. But by the time she retired at 65, she couldn't even run the utility check program I'd installed for her. And by the time she died at 89 last month, she could no more than remembered where to turn on the computer than how to reprogram a phone. And phones! Oh, gods, don't get me started. I'm only 69 and I use my smart phone all the time, but most of that time I still want to throw it against the wall and get back on a computer to accomplish something.

I'm not saying elders aren't reticent... many of them are. My father, who repaired TV's all his life, would touch the inside of a computer when I was rebuilding one. He was afraid of what he'd do to it, and afraid of what it could do to him. My FIL got a souped-up VHS player one year for Xmas. He refused to even plug it in... he was convinced it would burn his house down or something. But we can laugh at these situations while we're younger. Our brains latch on to concepts and process them quickly and (usually) correctly. Seniors' brains don't work like that any longer. The synapses take longer to make connections. Some of the grey matter isn't active anymore.

But most of all I say it is totally unfair. I, after working since I was 13 years old and paying into SS the whole time, feel like my retirement time should be a time I should enjoy -- not be terrorized by every young tom, dick, and harry that idolizes Musk. I couldn't even tell you which of the two - musk or trump- has set himself up as king over us. Who is actually running the country?