In the News
SOCIAL SECURITY ADMITS SERVICE MIGHT GET WORSE
Despite a robust budget increase for 2023, the Social Security Administration says service to beneficiaries seeking help will not improve for most of this year—and in some areas, it will deteriorate.
That was the sobering message of the agency’s operating plan submitted to Congress in February, which concedes there will be a “temporary degradation” of services such as help at the national 800 number or getting a decision on disability benefits.
The SSA got a 6 percent boost to its fiscal year 2023 operating budget to $14.1 billion. But the agency says most of that money is already spent and it doesn’t see any improvement in what critics consider a terrible customer service record until fiscal year 2024 begins in October.
35 minutes
estimated hold time for callers to SSA’s national number
“Approximately 75 percent of the budget increase will be required to cover fixed cost increases,” SSA spokesperson Nicole Tiggemann says. These include rent for office space and automatic cost-of-living adjustments to federal workers’ pay.
That was frustrating news for advocates who have pushed hard for better SSA service.
“Our first reaction was, this can’t be right,” says Chad Mullen, an AARP Social Security analyst. “Last year, SSA stated that this funding would be used to improve customer service. We expected to see SSA talking more about how things would be getting better, not worse.”
Mullen says AARP is “especially disappointed” in projected longer waits for callers to Social Security’s national number. The SSA estimates hold times will increase to 35 minutes amid “unanticipated delays” in overhauling its phone system.
And “wait times for a disability decision ... will continue to grow while we hire and train new staff,” the agency says.
TROUBLE SLEEPING? JOIN THE CLUB
MORE OLDER ADULTS than ever use medication to help them sleep, and some specialists warn that could come with worrisome consequences.
A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that in 2020, 12 percent of people 65 and older regularly took medicine to help them nod off. That’s higher than the total for all adults (8.4 percent), the CDC says.
Earlier studies by the CDC show about a third of adults don’t get enough sleep, and up to 70 million Americans have chronic sleep disorders. “These patients are often in the older age groups,” says Robert Satriale, M.D., a sleep medicine specialist at Temple Health in Philadelphia.
For those using medications to aid with shut-eye, specialists urge caution. Newer sleep medications such as zolpidem (Ambien) and eszopiclone (Lunesta) have a “somewhat safer” profile than older drugs, says K. Ashley Garling-Nañez, clinical assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin College of Pharmacy. Still, “anything that’s going to be sedating or make you sleepy is going to put you at risk for dizziness, falls, that sort of thing.”
Pharma Firms to Lower Insulin Costs
DRUGMAKERS ELI LILLY and Novo Nordisk say they will cut prices on some insulin products, an essential medicine for millions of people with diabetes, to bring costs for those with private insurance plans more in line with a $35 monthly cost cap on insulin that took effect for people with Medicare drug coverage this year as part of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The fall of insulin prices was good news for those who had seen costs soar to $100 a month or more in recent years.
Those announcements coincided with a government report predicting more good news on drug prices.
The prescription drug aspects of the IRA will save Medicare beneficiaries $25 billion and cut the federal deficit, says an analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. The CBO report says savings will come from allowing Medicare to negotiate some drug prices; drugmaker rebates to Medicare for price increases; and changes to the Part D prescription drug plan including a cap on out-of-pocket costs.
→ For more news about pharmacy costs, visit aarp.org/drugprices.
EEOC Targets Online Age Bias
THE FEDERAL AGENCY in charge of enforcing laws against age discrimination in the workplace promised to take aim at digital programs that sift through job applications and all too often discard the résumés of older workers.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says that for the next five fiscal years, it will focus on automation used to “recruit applicants, or make or assist hiring decisions,” and its potential to discriminate.
“We will continue to educate employers ... on the potential for unlawful bias so that these systems do not become high-tech pathways to discrimination,” EEOC Chair Charlotte A. Burrows said.
The potential for automated hiring processes to weed out older Americans has been a concern for AARP and other advocacy groups since that technology became widespread. The digital programs can easily find clues in an application that indicate a worker’s age, and eliminate older job seekers.
BACON, EGGS, COFFEE.
EATING AN EXTRA 25 grams of protein a day was linked to a 14 percent reduction in the risk of hip fracture in women, according to research from the University of Leeds cited by Science Daily. An extra cup of coffee reduced the risk an additional 4 percent.