Hands to Help Seniors

View From A Non-Profit Serving Carmel, Carmel Valley, Gonzalez, Greenfield, King City, Marina, Monterey, Pacific Grove, Pebble Beach, Salinas, Seaside And Soledad California

Wal-Mart reported weak fourth quarter profits with same-store sales growth of less than 1% and warned that January looked worse.  A 2% payroll tax increase, high gas prices and a three week delay in tax refunds is weighing heavily on lower income Americans.  "We hear them talking about it more than we're able to detect it in their sales patterns," U.S. CEO Bill Simon said on an analyst call on February 22. Melanie Burkhard told the Monterey Herald that the payroll tax cut has hurt her to the tune of $260 per month, money she just doesn't have.  "We had to do a flip on our budget.  This is money we used for things like going to a movie or splurging at Olive Garden.  Not anymore," she said.  She has been making fewer trips to WalMart partly due to the high cost of gas, which has gone up almost 50 cents per gallon over the last month across the nation and even more locally.  Californians are now paying $4.20 a gallon, on average, up 55 cents per gallon from a month ago.  Wal-Mart is the latest in a string of retail outlets including Burger King, Kraft Foods Group, Tyson Foods and Zale which say they are being squeezed by lower sales from low income Americans which are scraping to get by.  Burger King dropped the price of a Whopper from $2.00 to $1.29 and is focusing on advertising its value menu.  The U.S. Department of Labor on Thursday said that although consumer prices were flat in January for the second month running, core prices, which include volatile items like food and energy costs, rose at their fastest rates since May of 2011.  Despite signs the economy is improving modestly, the Median household income, adjusted for inflation, was down 1.5% in 2011 and is down 8.1% from 2007, according to the Census Bureau.  Until we can get the unemployment rate up to normal levels, the tepid economic outlook is likely to continue.

Please note that this blog reflects my personal opinion and may or may not reflect the opinion of Hands To Help Seniors and the individual members comprising the Board of Governors.

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View From A Non-Profit Serving Carmel, Carmel Valley, Gonzalez, Greenfield, King City, Marina, Monterey, Pacific Grove, Pebble Beach, Salinas, Seaside And Soledad California

Farmers are expecting a big rise in yields this year despite a major drought across much of the country last year.  The bad news is, prices at the grocery store are expected to jump 3-4% over the coming year, according to the USDA Department of Agriculture.  However, the USDA is hoping that we will have good weather in the spring and summer which could bode well for lower prices later in the year.  If corn prices drop from the current $7.50 per bushel to about $5 (as the USDA is predicting), products with sweeteners in them could start to see prices flatten and possibly drop.  Chickens grow quickly, so this would likely be the first meat to show price declines following a decline in the cost of corn feed.  Pork would be next, likely dropping in the second half of 2014.  Meat and dairy product prices will take longer to decline and the USDA predicts we won't see lower prices in these categories until 2016.  Many low-income Americans are just having to make due with less, as gas prices increase, the payroll tax increase kicks in and the cost of core goods and services rise more quickly than inflation.

Please note that this blog reflects my personal opinion and may or may not reflect the opinion of Hands To Help Seniors and the individual members comprising the Board of Governors.

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The dreaded doughnut hole, when senior citizens have to pay for prescriptions out of their own pocket, is being slowly phased out each year and will disappear by 2020 thanks to the Affordable Care Act, also known as health care reform.  But many think that this isn't soon enough.  A recent study of seniors which had bipolar disorder or schizophrenia found that they are hospitalized less if they maintain access to their prescriptions when they hit the coverage gap for prescription drugs.  It's no secret that many seniors simply don't pick up their prescriptions once they go into the doughnut hole because they can't afford them.  This puts them in an extremely dangerous situation.  Kenneth Smith, lead author of the report which was published in The American Journal of Managed Care, also called on the government to increase the discount seniors get on generics once they are in the doughnut hole.  Last year, they were given a 50% discount on name-brand drugs and 14% on generics, but he doesn't think that's enough.  Smith pointed out that many patients who can't afford their medications cost the government more money because they end up being hospitalized.  Lowering the out  of pocket expenses will cost the government more money in the short term but it could end up saving more money over the long term as hospital stays are very expensive.

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View From A Non-Profit Serving Carmel, Carmel Valley, Gonzalez, Greenfield, King City, Marina, Monterey, Pacific Grove, Pebble Beach, Salinas, Seaside And Soledad California

I've written many times on my blog about the Human Genome Project and other research areas scientists are working on which could dramatically change the way diseases are treated.  Someday, there will be something called "personalized medicine" whereby doctors will treat different people with the same disease with completely different drugs and procedures.  This will be based on their DNA, which will tell physicians which course of action will be most effective.  Researchers are now putting some children through a complete gene sequence searching for disease-causing mutations.  These tests are expensive but they have already declined in price from tens of thousands of dollars to between $7,000 and $9,000 for a whole family to go through the DNA sequencing.  Although this process finds a genetic aberration in only 25-30% of cases, this is powerful information that these families will have for the rest of their lives.  As they grow older and signs of a particular disease develop, the DNA testing will enable their physicians to provide a more targeted treatment.  It's likely that someday the cost of these tests will become so low that it will be a normal test that most people will have to understand their genetics and predisposition to some diseases.

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View From A Non-Profit Serving Carmel, Carmel Valley, Gonzalez, Greenfield, King City, Marina, Monterey, Pacific Grove, Pebble Beach, Salinas, Seaside And Soledad California

Heart attacks are not easy to recover from as the hard workers at one of our Platinum sponsors, Alliance Home Health, can attest to.  Many of the people they care for are senior citizens, and for the elderly, recovering from a major medical problem like a heart attack or stroke is a long arduous process.  Recovery times vary widely, and depend on the general health of the patient, their age and immune system.  There are other factors which play a part as well.  A new Gallup poll found that women who survive heart attacks suffer a greater emotional toll than men.  Both genders report more sadness, worry and stress and less enjoyment of life following a heart attack.  But the interviews, which cull data for the Gallup-Healthways Well Being Index, found that male survivors scored 77 out of 100 in their emotional well being following a heart attack compared with 73 for women.  The average score for non-heart attack victims was 81 for both men and women in the survey.  A full 35% of female survey respondents reported having been clinically diagnosed with depression following a heart attack versus 24% of men.  One factor impacting the results is that women are often sicker following a heart attack because they tend to wait longer to seek support after feeling warning signs such as chest pain and shortness of breath.  Seek medical attention immediately if you show signs like this.  And if you are unfortunate enough to have a heart attack, it's important that you have a solid support system of friends, family and if necessary some type of support group or counseling so you can make a full physical and emotional recovery after a heart attack. 

Please note that this blog reflects my personal opinion and may or may not reflect the opinion of Hands To Help Seniors and the individual members comprising the Board of Governors.

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