The Idaho Statesman has a truly painful story about Betsy and David Winkler, a couple living in Idaho. David Winkler, 69, suffers from Alzheimer’s and lives in an assisted living facility, while Betsy makes ends meet in her own way. The cost of the assisted living facility takes up $48,000 of the $51,600 she makes annually. After all of her bills are paid, 60-year-old Betsy Winkler is left with around $1 a day, as she’s budgeting herself to put away money for when her husband’s condition inevitably worsens and the costs for his care go up.
Which is why Winkler is pushing aside boxes of corn husks and watermelon rinds in search of summer’s bounty in a grocery store’s garbage.
“There’s peppers, asparagus, lettuce. Here’s a whole bag of potatoes and some apples,” she says, head down, intent. “They’re starting to get bad, so they toss them out. But there’s some nice potatoes. See? It’s just not up to their quality. ...
“I’ve been gathering up mushrooms lately,” she continues. “I probably have enough to last me through the winter. Any other mushrooms I get, they just go direct to the food bank. I’m not gonna be greedy about it.”
According to the Statesman, the costs for David Winkler’s care could rise above $63,000 as his disease worsens. David gets social security, a state pension, and a military pension. That’s because he’s a veteran who also taught at a juvenile detention center for years. Our country is facing a variety of economic problems in relation to cost of living, wages, and health care. But Idaho is facing one of the more terrifying realities: elder care in our unfeeling bootstrap economy and society.
The number of seniors in the Gem State – those ages 65 and older – increased by 30 percent from mid 2010 to mid-2016 compared with 22 percent for the country, according to the bureau.
This group – which includes the oldest four years of the baby boom generation (born between 1946 and 1964) – accounts for 15 percent of the state’s population.
The rest of the Statesman’s story covers how tough this has been on Betsy. It’s a must-read—but it is also tough to read and will hurt your heart.
What comes in: David gets $4,300 each month from his two pensions, his small disability payment and Social Security. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs gives him $1,640 each month through a program called Aid and Attendance to help defray the cost of assisted living. Total in: around $5,940 each month.
What goes out: Aid and Attendance comes with strings. Winkler cannot work, she says. If her income goes up, that benefit will go down. To receive it, David loses his $200 or so disability payment. Ashley Manor costs $4,000 each month. The couple’s other bills come to around $1,000. Total out: around $5,200.
Being the “lucky” recipient of a crowdfunding drive is moving and shows how generous people can be. But it isn’t an answer to a systemic problem.