Social Security and Medicare are Women's Issues

I love going to these lunch meetings around town. I went to the Older Women’s League meeting on “The Truth about Women and Social Security. Did you know that if you are divorced, you are entitled to 50% of your former spouse’s benefit? You must have been married for 10 years in order to qualify but that is the kind of information that social security does not tell you. There is so much information that we must seek out in order to help women discover every little thing that they are entitled to. Men earn on the average $250,000 more than women in their lifetime. Of course, 9 out of 10 women outlive their husbands and we spend on the average 15 years being a widow. So do yourself a favor and find out what you are entitled to and make sure you get it.

The speaker at this luncheon was Melody Kollath, CFP a Certified Financial Planner who is very active with the Older Women’s League. She can be reached at 303-798-0306 at her Littleton office.

Ellen Long, AARP/VOTE State Coordinator was also there to speak on Medicare and she was an inspiration. As a grass roots political person her entire life. She pleaded with us to get involved in a process that we are blessed to have as a democratic country. It’s so true that we don’t take advantage of the opportunities we have at our fingertips. Whether you call, email, or write your elected officials-it really doesn’t matter. In fact in 30 minutes you can do all three and make a difference. If they don’t hear from you, the paid lobbyists representing special interest groups win out.

One of the issues that she urged us to act on is the reauthorization of The Older Americans Act which has not been reauthorized since 1995 in Colorado and we have $18 million dollars of unmet needs due to our states growth rate and that people are living longer.

Colorado should be ashamed of the fact that they only put in 5% to match the federal dollars. In Utah they match 100%. Thanks to the grass roots efforts of many in Colorado we will hopefully have an increase of $3 million next year which is a far cry from 18 but this money pays for transportation, community meal sites, meals on wheels programs and our ombudsman services.

There are 25% of the women in this country who live only on their social security check and believe me they need more than that to simply pay their rent. As we celebrate Mothers Day lets take a moment and be thankful to all the mothers who represent the 75% of the caregivers in this country and lets show our children the value of being an active voting member and that we can make a difference.