Senator Kirsten Gillibrand wants Congress to give more money to seniors to help them pay rising healthcare costs by increasing the annual Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) to Social Security benefits. She's introduced a bill called the Boosting Benefits and COLAs for Seniors Act.
"Even with Social Security income, many older adults still can't afford basic necessities, and far too often, we have older adults facing homelessness, food insecurity, or financial ruin," Gillibrand said at an online press conference on Wednesday.
The North Country is aging. Except for Jefferson County, where Fort Drum is, every county in the region has a higher percentage of adults over 65 than the state average of 18%, according to U.S. Census data. Lots of North Country seniors rely on Social Security as their main source of income. Social Security benefits are already adjusted for inflation every year, but Gillibrand says those adjustments haven't been keeping up with the inflation of healthcare costs.
"While younger adults might spend the bulk of their incomes on things like housing, food, childcare or consumer goods, older adults typically spend a larger percentage of their income on medications and healthcare," Gillibrand said.
Government research from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services shows that people 65 and older spend almost two and a half times more on healthcare than those of working age, Gillibrand said. To account for that difference, she wants the annual Social Security adjustment to weigh healthcare costs more heavily.
Under Gillibrand's bill, the Social Security Administration would measure inflation differently. Instead of using the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, it would use the Consumer Price Index for the Elderly, which looks specifically at the cost of living for seniors, taking into account that seniors tend to have greater healthcare needs.