shAARP Talk: Observations from AARP

US News And World Report: "Bare Bones" Plans Contain Major Coverage Gaps

Michelle Andrews writes that the Florida bill signed by Governor Charlie Crist "is the latest example of a nationwide trend toward offering 'limited benefit' or 'bare bones' plans that often cover some everyday medical expenses like visits to the doctor and prescription medications but may come up seriously short if a policyholder gets seriously ill." Andrews continues, "It's easy to understand the appeal of these policies to politicians and business owners, who are scrambling to find ways to insure people amid escalating costs. But consumers need to ask hard questions about what they're really getting for their money and read the fine print of any policy they're considering," looking for important line such as the "total annual coverage" cap.

USA Today: USAT Today Offers Advice From Financial Mentors

"Mentors help us make sense of our choices. With their years of experience, they smooth over our naïveté. Just as we're about to veer down a black hole, they can shepherd us toward the correct path." This "surely holds true for money mentors. They can help you bolster your financial security. But why settle for just one? We've assembled a panel of Money Mentors who have volunteered to answer your questions with straight-ahead candor. In preparing for retirement, these folks have logged their share of both successes and blunders. And now that they've retired, they're eager to share what they've learned."

CBS News: Health Experts Prepare For Rise In Fall Injuries As Boomers Age

"The potential for this particular problem in our community is huge," said Sharyn Heuer, of Scottsdale Healthcare in Arizona. "I just think that we don't put it in the same category as things like cancer and heart disease and stroke because so many times, it's so often viewed as a normal progression of aging." One possible solution is the use of space-age technology - literally. Schraeder visits the Balance and Mobility Center at Scottsdale Healthcare, where technology originally developed to test the balance of astronauts back from space is now used to pinpoint problems that can lead to falls. Falls can be deadly, reports Gupta, as 30 percent of seniors who break their hip die within a year.

Forbes: "Universal Design" Helps Seniors Age In Place

Ashlea Ebeling writes, "A survey by AARP found 90% of folks 65 to 74 want to live out their years in their current homes. Yet many will find those homes ill-suited for physical limitations that can come with old age. One solution is to remodel while you're spry and able to supervise the work." The "key" to this kind of remodeling "is what's known as 'universal design.' That doesn't mean installing ugly wheelchair ramps that destroy your house's curb appeal," but making a "home safe and accessible" to people with "limited mobility." Neither do homeowners "need to settle for fusty design; architect Michael Graves, 73, who's relied on a wheelchair since 2003, is creating a new line of home products for people with limited mobility that includes a handheld shower massager and a bath bench." If "the idea of preparing now for possible future decline strike you as morose or a waste," the "consider the alternative, says Elinor Ginzler, AARP's senior vice president for livable communities. 'If you fall and break your hip, and want to go home after rehab, but you don't have a way to get to the second floor, then you can't go home,' she says."

US News And World Report: Older Workers Must Compete For Jobs As Retirement Plans Unravel

"While the economy is rocky for all age groups and jobs are scarcer than they were a year ago, older workers may face employers who think they're overqualified, too expensive, or -- not to put too fine a point on it -- just too old. That's a tough reality for nearly 30 percent of older workers who are rolling back their plans to retire, a figure recently reported by AARP." Jon Zion, executive at staffing company Robert Half International, says that companies "are becoming less focused on the potential drawbacks as baby boomers reach retirement age and create talent shortages." Zion offers some advice on "nabbing the interview as an older worker." Zion suggests that a "résumé shouldn't be any longer than 1 1/2 to two pages." Zion also says "networking is still the best way to find a job."

USA Today: Roth IRAs Better If Tax Rate Increases

Matt Krantz writes, "Roth IRAs are often described as nothing short as the best thing going for investors. And that naturally creates some skepticism. ... After all, why would the government be willing to give up on the lucrative toll they take on money taken from other retirement savings accounts?" Krantz says readers shouldn't "worry about the Internal Revenue Service, it's collecting its tax dollars whether you contribute to the Roth or the traditional IRA. It's just that you're essentially prepaying the tax when you contribute to a Roth and paying the tax when you take the money out with a traditional IRA. That means a Roth is a great deal if you think your tax rate will be higher in the future than it is now."

USA Today: AARP Draws On Hollywood Star Power To Push Health Care Issues

"More than 500 Hollywood writers and producers are working with senior advocacy group AARP to bring attention to the need to provide affordable health care, the groups will announce today. Divided We Fail, an AARP campaign that wants to find bipartisan ways to make health care affordable, will work with the Hollywood Radio & Television Society, the Entertainment Industry Foundation and the Motion Picture & Television Fund to make sure health care messages are included in the story lines of popular TV shows and movies. 'People are worried,' says Nancy LeaMond, AARP's executive vice president of social impact. 'They're putting their money into day-to-day survival. We started thinking what was really important was to reach out through popular culture. There's nothing more effective.'" During a meeting scheduled for Thursday, "writers and producers will share personal anecdotes, as well as clips from shows that have tackled health care." Law & Order: SVU producer Neal Baer "says he was drawn to the AARP campaign because he is also a pediatrician. While at Harvard Medical School, he read a script for ER and ultimately spent six years as its executive producer."

MarketWatch: Geriatrician Sees Benefits In Working Beyond Retirement Age

Marshall Loeb writes that "in a "provocative new book, 'The Longevity Revolution,' Dr Robert N. Butler, a top expert in geriatrics," says that he and his colleagues "found that people who had clearly specified goals and organization in their lives lived longer than those who did not. Whether work extends a person's life requires further investigation, but its enhancement of the quality of life seems certain." Butler also indicates that "studies show that cognitive health can be maintained by intellectual stimulation as well as by physical activity." Butler recommends some "opportunities for constructive volunteer work" in lieu of employment: "The AARP has a large volunteer program that uses a database to match skills with needs."

AP: High Court Rules For Workers In Job Bias Cases

Sherman writes "In two employment cases, one involving race and the other, age, the court took an expansive view of workers' rights and avoided the narrow, ideology-based decisions that marked its previous term.
The justices read parts of an 1860s civil rights act and the main anti-age bias law to include the right to sue over reprisals even though neither provision expressly prohibits retaliation."

Here's the latest from Carmel Perez-Snyder in Florida:

Three clowns, a pirate, a Gecko, a beauty queen, the mayor and young women in orange shorts from a certain chain ... No this is not a joke. All have one thing in common: they visited the Champmobile and all signed a Divided We Fail pledge in Palatka at the Blue Crab Festival.

It was literally three hot days at the Blue Crab festival as staff and volunteers collected pledges and authentic voices.

In the end, we gathered more than 800 pledges, recorded three authentic voices, plus a couple submitted online and really gained some strong possibilities for volunteers in Northeast Florida. We even had some folks hop on the CM and join AARP online.

AP: Existing Home Sales Down Again In April

The AP reported, "The median price for an existing home dropped 8 percent, compared with a year ago, to $202,300. It was the second largest price decline on record and analysts predicted prices would fall further in the months ahead given the huge backlog of unsold single-family homes. The number of unsold single-family homes in April rose to a 10.7 months supply at the current sales pace, the highest level since June 1985."

US News And World Report: Author Offers Advice To Retiree-Entrepreneurs

Some people cling to the security of working for someone else most of their lives, repressing their inner entrepreneur until retirement, says Stan Spector, author of The Baby Boomer's Official Guide to Retirement Income." Spector offers some advice to entrepreneurial boomers, such as avoiding "ventures that would require a lot of fixed costs, such as building up a large inventory or leasing a building." Also, selling "consulting services for your old profession, for example, is one way to leverage your experience and contacts." One advantage retirees have the luxury of time, allowing them to "focus their business on times when the money really rolls in."

NewsWeek: Fear Of Voter Fraud Said To Be Overblown

Evidence suggests that rampant voter fraud is a myth, and voter-ID laws may suppress votes rather than protect them. ... The fiction that Democrats -- especially black and Hispanic Democrats -- steal elections has gained traction only since 2000. And that fervent belief has rapidly gone from a Bush administration side dish to its main course." However, according to Lithwick, "evidence of widespread vote fraud just hasn't materialized. Despite a massive Bush administration initiative to smoke out liberal vote fraud, 120 prosecutions between 2002 and 2006 resulted in only 86 convictions, mostly of Democrats and mainly for errors in filling out forms or confusion over eligibility."