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Healthy Aging By Sharon Johnson We owe our older women a better life At a meeting I attended a few weeks ago, a lovely, 70-year-old woman, sensing the need for diversion from a sobering discussion, performed a spontaneous tap dance. Dancing and humming, she enchanted the people around the table. The memory of her dancing feet was in my mind recently as I read materials put forward by an organization called National Older Women's League, or OWL. It presents itself as "the voice of midlife and older women." Here are excerpts from its publication, "The State of Older Women in America." "Today the average woman in America lives over 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 average annual income of $15,615 (compared to an average $29,171 for men). "During her lifetime, she probably spent about 17 years caring for children and 18 years caring for elderly parents. While these caregiving responsibilities have not always taken her out of the work force, they have impacted her work patterns and dramatically lowered her lifetime earnings and, ultimately, her retirement income. "Because her retirement income is less, she spends a higher proportion of it on housing - leaving less for necessities like utilities, food, transportation and rising medical costs. She likely has two or more chronic illnesses, which probably require the use of prescription drugs. Medicare does not cover the costs of most prescription drugs, and she is unlikely to have supplemental insurance to make up the difference. All told, the average woman on Medicare spends 20 percent more on prescription drugs than men - largely due to her greater longevity, but also due to her tendency toward chronic illness." This is the face of the older woman in the Rogue Valley. More than half of aging women locally are caught in a cycle of poverty exacerbated by high prescription drug costs. These are our mothers and grandmothers, our neighbors and friends. In a 1999 study by the Kaiser Family Foundation, it was clear that we do not realize women we care about are so challenged. Forty-three percent of the adults surveyed say they know "next to nothing or nothing at all" about their aging parent's health insurance. Forty-five percent did not know the name of their mother's (parent's) health provider. Why do we not understand something so basic to the well-being of the women we love? The medications that treat chronic illnesses and keep aging women independent, dancing if you will, have huge price tags. Aging women cannot cover these costs. And Medicare will not cover these costs. Our mothers and grandmothers, neighbors and friends -the ones who nurtured us, the ones who care for us when we are vulnerable - are in a great dilemma. How do we change this? Our improved personal understanding of the issues will help. Medicare policy changes regarding prescription drug coverage will help even more. There is another publication put out by OWL. It is titled, "The Face of Medicare is a Woman You Know." Get to know her better. The older woman's issues are the nation's issues in microcosm. Sharon Johnson is an assistant professor in family and community development at OSU Extension and a member of the Senior Advisory Council. Reach her at [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.