Struggling to survive
By Hannah Hager
Breast cancer, cataracts, diabetes and no health insurance.
It sounds unimaginable, but it is Etta Messick’s life.
A retiree in her 70s, Messick lives with her husband in the Mary Hardesty House Apartments, housing for seniors in Berryville.
Although her husband is employed, Messick is not eligible for health insurance coverage under his plan.
Messick's tale rings true for many senior citizens in Clarke County.
Their health insurance coverage has run dry, their disability checks have been cut off or they never had health coverage to begin with.
Messick and two other Mary Hardesty residents, Helena Osbourne and Dorothy Aitchison, recently chatted in the lobby about the current crisis for seniors. For them, not making ends meet is a regular story.
They joke about how solicitations for credit card applications and bills are all they receive in the mail.
Medical bills.
“It makes you want to run out the door and go get a job,” Messick said. “But who’s going to hire a 70-year-old?”
Personal retirement savings accounts are becoming more important for retirees, whose greatest fear is running out of money.
Messick spent her life rearing her children as a full-time mother. She was only employed outside the home for a few years after husband suffered a stroke.
Her husband has since recovered, but now her own health is ailing and there’s little she can do to pay for medical and living expenses.
Treatment for her diabetes includes 30 minutes of daily exercise a day, a difficult task while she recovers from breast cancer surgery.
And, for many, the situation is getting worse.
“Social Security isn’t doing the job people think they are,” Dorothy Aitchison said.
A Medicare recipient, she said $80 is taken from her Social Security check every month to cover Medicare costs.
“[Medicare] only pays 80 percent of our doctor’s bills,” she said.
The average monthly Social Security benefits for 2008 is $1,079 for a retired worker, $1,761 for a retired couple and $1,041 for a widow or widower.
The women warned young people to watch their spending habits.
"I would never pay $100 for a pair of shoes," Aitchison said.
She said husband's Robert Social Security checks don't cover as much as they used to when he first retired at 65; he is now 82.
When President Franklin D. Roosevelt submitted the Social Security bill to Congress in 1935, the average life expectancy was 61.7.
According to Reuters, a United States citizen born in 2008 has a life expectancy of 78 years.
When she was younger, Messick never imagined she would live to the age she is today. She hopes her children won't find themselves in her position when they're older.
“Tomorrow will take care of itself,” she remembered her son telling her.
Aitchison cautioned others to be conscientious in their spending habits.
"That designer handbag won't do you any good in 20 to 30 years," she said.
Eighty-eight-year-old Helena Osbourne finds that most residents at the Hardesty House are struggling to stay afloat, living off Social Security checks.
Although she says that coming up with money can be difficult at times, Osbourne has lived through worse times than these.
Trying to get by during the Great Depression is something most people today can't even imagine, she said.
Growing up in New York state, Osbourne's parents often had to leave town for work. This meant leaving her and her sister alone to fend for themselves.
“My mother would be arrested if it were today,” she said.