ELF News Archives
August 2006
- America's financial future looking bleaker and bleaker -
The Social Security trust fund is what I call an oxymoron. It should not be trusted, and it is not funded.'' It's pay-as-you-go, and the $90 billion annual surplus (2005 estimate) will become a $250 billion cash flow deficit by 2030. The even-bigger elephant in the room: Medicare, with potential liabilities about five times as huge.
Pensacola News 8/31
- Carson supervisors to use bond share for senior housing -
Carson City supervisors on Monday elected to use their share of a state bond allowance to help pay for affordable senior housing planned by a private developer.
Nevada Appeal 8/31
- In elder care, too many are still trying to square the circle -
In caring for the elderly there is no substitute for personal concern. But recent reports confirm what attentive people already knew: Caring deeply isn’t the only non-negotiable job qualification...People are dying unnecessarily, and suffering unnecessarily, for a simple, embarrassing reason: Too many homes are trying to do the right thing, on the cheap.
Fayetteville OnLine 8/30
- The Insolvency of the Social Security System is a Fertility Crisis as Much as a Financial Crisis -
That Real Third Rail is fertility. No one wants to mention that the insolvency of the Social Security system is a fertility crisis at least as much as a fiscal crisis. It is considered rude to mention that the collapse in the fertility levels, particularly striking among the most gifted women in society, is a contributing factor to the insolvency of our entitlement programs.
Life Style 8/30
- Nobleboro Tackles Aging Issues in Comp Plan -
Another issue for elders is affordable housing. Taxes and upkeep can cause those living on fixed incomes to lose their homes.
Lincoln County News 8/30
- Cato Institute scholar speaks at Penn -
Although many have lost sight of Social Security reform in the face of Iraq and tax cuts, in the words of Tanner, "This is an issue that is not going away." In fact, the situation is actually getting worse.
The Record 8/29
- Elder abuse unacceptable, minister says -
People must break the "code of silence" on issues such as elder abuse, Jim Bradley, the Ontario minister responsible for seniors, said yesterday.
The Record 8/29
- Nursing homes fall short -
TWO Victorian nursing homes owned by the same company will continue to take residents, despite failing several basic standards of accreditation.
The Age 8/29
- PENSION REFORM DEVOURS SOME OF THE GOODIES -
This new law sounds very much like the original Social Security Act of 1935 in that it asks companies to enroll all of their employees, in this case with 401(k) or IRA plans instead of payroll taxes. It also raises the caps on pretax dollars that can be invested in these accounts and allows individuals ninety days to opt out if they’re crazy enough to do so, while also providing a few other incentives and goodies that people could have taken advantage of all along.
Ether Zone 8/25
- Bipartisan Solutions to the Social Security Crisis -
Despite growing concern over the inability to fund Social Security’s pension obligations and its burden on the federal budget, nothing has been done to reform the program. When President George W. Bush sought reform last year, his proposal for personal retirement accounts (PRAs) was quickly shot down.
AEI 8/25
- Nursing homes use arbitration as a shield -
The nursing home industry thinks it might have found a way to stop costly and embarrassing lawsuits: Get residents to agree up front not to file them.
Roanoke.Com 8/25
- Social Security reform -
Social Security reform -- conceived in a wave of optimism following President Bush's 2004 re-election -- crashed last year on the rocks of hyper-partisanship in Washington.
Washington Times 8/23
- Avoid unrealistic expectations when planning for retirement -
The chances are pretty good that, at one time or another, you've thought about the "ideal" retirement. But have you really considered what it takes to get there?
Mid County Chronicle 8/23
- WFayette attorney charged with theft from elderly -
A Fayette County lawyer was charged yesterday with stealing nearly $100,000 in mortgage settlement payments from older clients.
Post Gazette 8/23
- Why is Medical Care so Expensive? -
Few observers dare to state that spiraling health-care costs are the inevitable consequence of a 1965 Social Security amendment molding Medicare and Medicaid. It provided a basic welfare program that covers most persons aged 65 and older as well as all needy individuals. Soon after its passage some four million patients rushed to seek treatment and some 18 million Americans registered to have 80 percent of doctor and surgeon bills paid by the new system.
Mises Institute 8/22
- How secure is Social Security? -
What can be done to avert a crisis? Congress can reduce the benefits provided by Social Security, increase funding or find a third option to help fund retirement.
MetroWestDailyNews 8/22
- KEYSTONE NAZARETH BANK & TRUST CHOOSES EDCOMM’S ELDER ABUSE COMPLIANCE TRAINING -
With more than 5 million cases per year, financial abuse of elders is the number one crime committed against persons age 65 and older. Currently, 17 states and Washington, D.C. have passed laws that require bank personnel to report suspected cases of elder financial abuse.
Keystone Nazareth 8/22
- State Nursing Homes For Veterans Losing Money -
A state audit report says Colorado's nursing homes for military veterans lost $7.5 million in the past three years and failed to heed warnings to improve their finances.
Denver Channel 8/22
- Disinformation Versus Social Security Reform -
Yes, seniors paid payroll taxes for Social Security. But if they believe that their benefits are "earned and paid for," that is what Franklin Roosevelt and the other architects of Social Security wanted them to believe. To a complaint that the Social Security payroll tax was regressive, hitting the working poor the hardest, Roosevelt replied, "I guess you’re right on the economics, but those payroll taxes were never a problem of economics. They were politics all the way through....the Social Security tax wasn’t about financing the program. It was about creating a sense of entitlement, a belief that benefits are an "earned right." But as we shall see, the "earned right" is a fiction.
Future of Freedom Foundation 8/21
- Ending Social Security: Part 2 -
The Social Security train heads for a collision, the system’s bankruptcy. Everyone hangs on for dear life hoping the crash won’t come or that they will survive it. What should be done? Stop the train and let everyone off.
Lew Rockwell 8/21
- Origins of the Welfare State in America -
The Business Advisory Committee of the Department of Commerce, for example, which proved highly influential in drawing up New Deal measures, was dominated by the scion of the Harriman family, W. Averill Harriman, and by such Rockefeller satraps as Walter Teagle, head of Standard Oil of New Jersey. Here we have space to trace only the influence of the Rockefellers, allied with the Wisconson progressives and the graduates of the settlement houses, in creating and imposing on America the Social Security System...."Big businesses, who were already providing pensions, could use the federal government to force their small-business competitors into paying for similar, costly, programs."
Mises 8/21
- Nursing homes: Business as usual -
Two decades after the passage of a federal law to clean up the nation’s nursing homes, bad care persists and good homes are still hard to find.
Consumer Reports 8/18
- Don’t let hopes and money vaporize with retirement plans, Social Security -
TThe coming years are going to produce more and more baby boomers who feel like busted boomers as the generation enters retirement. The shock of discovering that those glorious and leisurely retirement years they envisioned often come with reduced standards of living and struggles, just to make ends meet, will truly make them feel like they’re busted. The ones who lived it up during their earning years and failed to plan for the future will learn that Social Security provides anything but security.
Citizen-Times 8/18
- GE Adds More Apartments, Nursing Homes in Germany -
GE Real Estate Germany, true to its word, has bulked up its German multi-family and nursing home portfolios. The company paid €45.5 million (U.S.$58 million) to acquire 1,006 apartments and 17 commercial units, totaling 709,374 square feet from a private investor.
CPN 8/18
- AMA Visits Buffalo, NY Regarding Medicare Patient Crisis -
...45 percent, of physicians tell the AMA the cuts will force them to either decrease or stop taking new Medicare patients. To keep providing high quality care to patients, Medicare must provide appropriate payments to the doctors who provide that care."
All Headline News 8/17
- Uncle Sam’s Secret Bookkeeping Exposed -
If the government accounted for future retirement promises (as the government legally requires businesses to do) such as Social Security and Medicare, the budget deficit would actually be a massive $3.5 trillion.
The Trumpet 8/17
- Area nursing homes cited, fined for violations -
State officials allege the facility failed to follow their abuse prohibition policy by "not reporting multiple incidents of abuse witnessed by several other staff members during a five-month period," thus subjecting the resident to continued abuse.
Review-Atlas 8/17
- Seniors deserve options regarding long-term care -
Should your family consider an assisted-living facility, moving back home with the assistance of a personal attendant or adult day care?
Journal Gazettee 8/15
- The Growing Problem of Elder Abuse is Perpetrated by Family Members -
The National Center on Elder abuse estimates that 3.4 to 5 percent of the 43 million Americans who are 60 and older will become the victims of some form of maltreatment each year. Elder abuse is characterized as active or passive neglect; psychological or financial exploitation; physical abuse, sexual abuse, or abandonment carried out with intent to cause injury or pain. The National Center for Victims of Crimes reports that adult children are the largest perpetrators of elder abuse (47.3%), followed by spouses (19.3%), other relatives (8.8%), and grandchildren (8.6%).
Prime Zone 8/15
- Pension Crisis the Work of Many -
At the crux of the pension crisis that has prevented the city from issuing public bonds for more than two years are two decisions in 1996 and 2002 that reduced payments to the pension fund while increasing benefits to pensioners.
San Diego Business Journal 8/15
- Think the U.S. Social Security system is flawed? -
The retirement benefits themselves are more luscious in Europe than in the United States. Germans, for example, receive roughly 70 percent of their historic working income after they retire, versus 53 percent of income received by Americans. And France's official retirement age is 60.
STLtoday 8/14
- Next Steps: The growing elder-abuse crisis -
...few reporters went beyond the headlines to focus on the bigger story: The growing elder-abuse crisis in the United States...As many as 5 million elderly Americans are injured, exploited, or mistreated every year by someone on whom they depend for care or protection according to the U. S. Senate Special Committee on Aging.
The State 8/14
- Quality care for those living in nursing homes -
..researchers evaluated three of the most recent state inspection reports for about 16,000 nursing homes in the United States. Only a limited number of nursing homes met the quality standards...
SitNews 8/14
- Do you think nursing homes are safe? -
No, not unless you have someone check on you daily because the staff need more pay to keep them from taking it out on the patients
Dayton Daily News 8/14
- Analysis: Ending the Medicare two-step -
It is summer in Washington and Medicare and Congress are again dancing their dangerous two-step -- the formula used to calculate what physicians are paid for services dictates a potentially disastrous five percent cut.
UPI 8/11
- Elder abuse case not isolated -
As a Fort Wright couple faced a judge this week over allegations that they took advantage of an 85-year-old woman in their care, other elderly and disabled people across Northern Kentucky likely are suffering mistreatment by caregivers who haven't been caught.
Cincinnati Post 8/11
- Aged carer sentenced for elder abuse -
A FORMER aged care nurse has been sentenced in Brisbane to probation and community service for assaulting elderly patients.
News.Com.Au 8/11
- Ending Social Security: Part 1 -
The Social Security program, as with all government programs, has problems, causes problems, and is a problem. We hear a great deal of talk, often acrimonious, about reform. Talk of changing Social Security for the better places us in a dream world that ignores Social Security’s many negatives. The appropriate and only genuine solution to the damage caused by Social Security is to eliminate it altogether – end it.
Lew Rockwell 8/10
- Buyer Beware: Non-Profit Nursing Homes Score Best In Survey -
If you want the best care in a nursing home, look for a non-profit. That's the conclusion of an extensive evaluation of nursing homes across the country.
KOMO 8/10
- U.S. and The Coming Financial Crisis -
Then there are the future obligations such as Medicare, Social Security and government pensions. These obligations amount to $54 trillion dollars...
Conservative Voice 8/09
- Local Nursing Homes On Watch List -
Who are the worst offenders in Pittsburgh?
The report included what's called a Nursing Home Quality Monitor.
It looked at staffing issues, hazardous conditions and repeat offenders in the state of Pennsylvania.
WXPI 8/09
- The Socialist Response - The Myth of Social Security's Imminent Collapse -
The strategy of the privatizers is proving quite successful. Sow doubts about the future solvency of the system. Chip away its near-universal political support by taxing benefits of "affluent" retirees, periodically lowering the definition of affluence. Encourage the "affluent" retirees of the future to provide for themselves...
FAIR 8/09
- Report Finds For-Profit Nursing Homes Better -
There's a new report that will get the attention of anyone with elderly parents or relatives.
An investigation by a Consumer Reports magazine says if you want to find the best nursing home care for your loved ones non-profit ones do the job better than for-profit operations.
KLAXTV 8/08
- Nursing homes' poor care continues -
Nonprofit nursing homes generally provide better care than those operated for profit, an analysis of state inspections for 16,000 homes nationwide found.
DETNEWS 8/08
- Abuse of elderly is a growing problem -
Financial abuse of the elderly is a common and growing problem...
Metro/Regional 8/08
- Don't rely on gov't for income in retirement -
Would you be able to live comfortably in retirement if you receive only the maximum government benefits?
Star/Phoenix 8/08
- Nursing homes lose money -
The state-federal Medicaid program, which covers health expenses for the poor, underfunds nursing homes about $4.5 billion nationally — $1 billion more than five years ago, according to BDO Seidman, a Madison, Wis.-based accounting company, which did the study for the American Health Care Association.
Rapid City Journal 8/04
- Retire the federal pension guarantee -
Corporations, not taxpayers, ought to be held accountable for promises...Consider the Social Security mess: Once the baby-boomers retire, the system likely will go upside down, with the amount of money the government pays to the retirees vastly exceeding the amount of tax dollars going into the system. Meanwhile, public agencies at the federal, state and local level are dealing with massive unfunded pension liabilities. Elected officials have made retirement contracts with government workers that are overly generous, resulting in hundreds of billions of dollars in promises to workers above the amount of funds set aside to pay for those promises...
OCRegister 8/04
- Bush Budget Punishes America’s Workers and Veterans to Save Tax Breaks for Millionaires -
Just days after President George W. Bush laid out his blueprint to privatize Social Security—a scheme that could slash guaranteed benefits for many workers
AFLCIO 8/04
- New Coalition Targets Improved Quality of Life in Nursing Homes -
A new, broad-based coalition of long-term care providers, caregivers, medical and quality improvement experts, government agencies, and consumers is launching an initiative to improve quality of care and quality of life for the country’s 1.5 million nursing home residents.
Senior Journal 8/02
- Aged carer sentenced for elder abuse -
Joyce Stewart, 64, pleaded guilty to seven counts of common assault on patients at the Care and Independent Living complex at Bribie Island, north of Brisbane, between 1999 and 2003.
News.Com.Australia 8/02
- Forthcoming entitlement explosion -
"federal spending for Medicare and Medicaid would rise from 4.4 percent of GDP today to about 8 percent in 2020 and 22 percent in 2050."...Conservatively assuming today's non-Medicare/Medicaid/Social Security portion of the federal budget stays at today's 11? percent of GDP, the federal budget will grow respectively to 24.8 and 39.9 percent of GDP in 2020 and 2050. That amounts to a roughly 25 percent increase in the government's share of the economy in just the next 15 years and almost a doubling over the next 45 years. By any measure, that is a staggering redistribution of resources from the private to the public sector...The Social Security and Medicare trust funds are currently projected to begin running deficits in 2017 and 2006 respectively.
Washington Times 8/02
- Paulson's policy speech not worth a strong dollar -
Simplify the tax code; establish a line-item veto; create personal accounts to replace Social Security...Paulson announced that he intends to work in a bipartisan manner; that the fiscal problem posed by Social Security, Medicare and other so-called government entitlements "is difficult"
Chicago Tribune 8/02