ELF News Archives
September 2003- World's Oldest Man Dies -
Not in a Nursing Home, but at Home
Yukichi Chuganji, a Japanese listed by the Guinness Book of Records as the world's oldest man, died Sunday night. He was 114 and six months.
Relatives said Chuganji, who worked as a silkworm breeder before becoming a bank clerk, died in his sleep at his home in Ogori, Fukuoka Prefecture. He attributed his longevity to a glass of milk every morning.
Mainland China News (Mainichi.co.ip) 09/29
- Alzheimer's drug moves toward U.S. market -
A drug long used in Germany to ease the ravages of Alzheimer's disease took a step toward the U.S. market yesterday when government scientists backed memantine as the first treatment specifically for late stages of the mind-stealing disease.
Baltimore Sun 09/26
- A nation fooling itself -
MORE than half Britain’s workers will be forced to rely on state hand-outs in retirement, although most have fooled themselves into expecting a comfortable old age, a new pensions study shows.
London Times 09/26
- New Way to Test for Alzheimer's Disease -
Determining the ratio of two biochemicals in a person's spinal fluid may help doctors evaluate patients with dementia and diagnose Alzheimer's disease.
USA Today 09/24
- Hypertension tied to memory lapses -
High blood pressure, a well-known player in heart attacks and stroke, also might contribute to the memory lapses that many people experience as they get older, a study released Tuesday suggests.
USA Today 09/24
- Medicare: Privatization is the key -
"If we don't make some changes to the current Medicare program, it will go bankrupt," ...
Washington Times 09/24
- War between the Generations
Federal Spending on the Elderly Set to Explode -
At the signing ceremony for the new Medicare program in 1965, President Lyndon Johnson said, "No longer will young families see their own incomes, and their own hopes, eaten away simply because they are carrying out their deep moral obligations to their parents." But taxes to support growth in Medicare and Social Security will severely eat away at young people's income in coming years unless those programs undergo fundamental reforms.
Cato Institute 09/22
- Personal Accounts in a Down Market: How Recent Stock Market Declines Affect the Social Security Reform Debate -
The evidence shows that long-term market investment for Social Security, while hardly risk free, bears little resemblance to the "meltdown" scenarios painted by many account opponents. Opponents of personal accounts implicitly assume that workers with accounts would be short-term investors without any nonstock diversification.
Cato Institute 09/18
- Dean Says Raise Social Security Tax Cap on Wages -
Dr. Dean said in 1995 that he "absolutely" believed in raising the Social Security retirement age to 68 or 70, repeated this June that it was something he would consider and then in August said he had never favored doing so (he later said he had misspoken by denying ever supporting such a change, but does not want one now).
Cato Institute 09/18
- Rep. Smith Introduces Retirement Security Act -
Rep. Nick Smith (R-Mich.), long-time champion of Social Security reform and former chairman of Bipartisan Task Force on Social Security, reintroduced his Retirement Security Act at a press conference on Wednesday, September 10. The legislation details three specific goals: provide retirement security for the elderly, give young people an opportunity to improve their retirement prospects, and benefit the economy instead of burdening it.
"This year we will spend $475 billion on social security. By 2017 it will be $734 billion and payroll taxes will not cover benefit payments.
Cato Institute 09/15
- Beyond Special Ed, a Fragile Future -
Va. Budget Gaps Diminish Transition Options
Ted Nigh wants his friends to know that life in the nursing home is all right and that they shouldn't hesitate to visit him. He is getting good care and gets along well with the staff.
The problem is, he has difficulty relating to most of the other residents.
...I don't want nursing home life to become a regular habit."
Washington Times 09/15
- Study Looks at Hospitalization for Injury -
Older Women Now Surpass Young Men in Admissions; Population Shifts Cited
Reversing a decades-old pattern, older women have replaced young men as the group most likely to wind up in a hospital bed after accidental injury, according to a recent study. The shift reflects the growth in the number of frail elderly people and changes in emergency room treatment that have sharply reduced the need to hospitalize younger patients...
Washington Times 09/15
- Bill Would Modify Pension Plan Rules -
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) plans to sponsor legislation that would require operators of pension plans to take into account the age of their workforce when computing pension liabilities.
Washington Times 09/15
- Government Scheming Behind Russian Pension Problems - Remarkably Similar to US Government -
The real reason for the (pension) holdup, some management companies said, is the government's desire to leave the public uninformed and keep control of as much money as possible.
Moscow Times 09/10
- Beware of the baby boomers as retirement time gets further away -
The UK'S 17 million baby boomers, born between 1945 and 1965 and now marching briskly through middle age, are in line for a rude awakening as retirement looms.
Independent.CO.UK 09/09
- A new Medicare plan -
Summer is gone, official Washington is back and conservatives are gearing up to take more whacks at Medicare legislation based on the conviction that it needs to be undone for the sake of limited government.
Washington Times 09/09
- No Free Lunch -
Take prescription drug coverage. Politicians promise to add prescription drug coverage to the nearly bankrupt Medicare system, while
ignoring the issue of who's going to pay for it.
Liberty Wire 09/05
- Singapore bites pension reform bullet -
Government officials had been preparing Singaporeans for several days that their social safety net system might be taking a hit.
Washington Times 09/04
- Analysis: Medicare ages with little grace -
...the program then, much like Social Security, instilled hope and optimism in a nation that sought to take care of one segment of its most vulnerable citizens -- the elderly, most of whom had worked decades and had collectively placed millions of tax dollars into federal coffers.
Washington Times 09/04
- Socialism kills -
In a period of two weeks during August, more than 11,000 elderly French men and women died of heat stroke.
TownHall.Com 09/03