Turning 65?

While 1 in 8 has memory problems and confusion, too few seek help

THURSDAY, May 9 (HealthDay News) — About 13 percent of Americans 60 and older say they have increasing problems with thinking and memory and that they suffer growing confusion, a new report released Thursday shows.

One-third of these people add that the confusion or memory loss caused problems at work or with social activities and household chores, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The findings underscore the need to be alert for early signs of dementia or Alzheimer’s disease, experts said.

Marvin Tolkin was 83 when he decided that the unexamined life wasn’t worth living. Until then, it had never occurred to him that there might be emotional “issues” he wanted to explore with a counselor.

Amid all the recent worry about people lacking health insurance, one vulnerable group of Californians appears to be suffering from too much, not too little coverage.

On Wednesday, state lawmakers, hospital leaders and labor unions rallied at the State Capitol in support of a bill (AB 900) that would stop a retroactive 10% cut to Medi-Cal reimbursements for hospital-based skilled nursing services, the Sacramento Business Journal reports (Robertson, Sacramento Business Journal, 4/10).

A nonpartisan group of legislators joined union and health care leaders at the State Capitol on Wednesday in support of legislation to stop a retroactive 10 percent cut in Medi-Cal funding for hospital-based skilled nursing services they say will hurt patients, workers and hospitals.

When Betty Johnson was widowed for the second time in her life, after her husband’s three-year battle with a rare form of leukemia, she was wracked with grief for a year.

“I knew that feelings can fester,” said Johnson, 92, recalling that period in her life. “I knew that I had to get rid of the choking, suffocating, feeling, the sickening feeling.”

She cried every week of her first year of meeting with a counselor. Throughout her mourning, it was a great help to bare her soul to a trained expert, said Johnson.

A change in the way depression is diagnosed in the bereaved – to be implemented in May by the American Psychiatric Association – could have a particular impact on older people.

No matter what type of Medicare coverage you have, you have certain guaranteed rights. 

When Marie Benedetto opened her mail last week and learned her long-term care premium was going up a stunning 85 percent, she did what a retired math teacher would do. She made a spreadsheet.

Benedetto calculated she’d have to spend $1,328 a month or $15,936 a year for the policy after the increase goes into effect. That added up to a 415 percent increase in premiums since she first purchased the policy in 1997.

For Benedetto, the rate increase makes her policy unaffordable.