Following the lead of USA Today’s July 2nd coverage on the effects of soaring gas prices on fixed income seniors (as well a cover story about how fuel costs are affecting rural towns), The New York Times puts up almost 1600 words on the subject. The news is pretty damn near heartbreaking.
Basically, agencies that provide essential help to home bound seniors, such as Meals on Wheels and visiting health care, are finding that the cost of gas is forcing them to make significant cuts in service. Agencies that rely on volunteers, especially those who pay for their own gas, are being particularly hard hit.
And, of course, it’s not just volunteer services that are being forced to make gas price-induced changes:
“Public agencies of all kinds are struggling with the new math of higher gas prices….. Some communities have cut school bus routes, police patrols, traveling libraries and lawn maintenance. The St. Paul Police Department is encouraging officers to use horses and bikes. A number of state agencies, including those in Utah, are going to four-day workweeks….”
Some of the numbers in this article are staggering.
For example, a recent survey found that home health and hospice workers drove 4.8 billion miles in 2006 to serve 12 million clients. CareLink, a Meals on Wheels-type agency covering just six counties in Arkansas, delivered 480,181 meals to 18,000 people last year.
The reporter also interviewed a 26-year-old home aide who helps care for an Alzheimer’s patient in Michigan, near the Indiana border. The woman is paid $250 a week to provide twice-daily visits and at 50 miles round trip, she spends $100 of it on gas. And while you might be thinking it’d be cheaper to place the patient in a nursing home, the article suggests you think again:
“[H]ome care and Meals on Wheels keep people at home for a fraction of the cost of a nursing home. The state pays for care once they’re in a nursing home. So our cuts may cost more than they save[,]” according to Elaine Eubank, president of CareLink in Arkansas.
If there’s anything–anything–even remotely positive to glean from this article, it’s the idea that perhaps, as we move into a new era of record-breaking cost of living increases, we’re being forced to return to an age in which house accounts, chits, IOUs–in a word, trust–was an accepted, albeit interim, form of currency:
“Sandra Prediger, 70, who still drives a car … was barely able to pay her bills before gas prices rose. …Her Social Security check arrives on the third of the month. For the few days before, her local gas station lets her write a postdated check to fill up.”
Of course, when you have no money left for the month, already owe the gas station money and your friend is gonna need a ride to Wal-Mart for diabetes needles any minute now, as Ms. Prediger goes on to say, you’re sorta left wondering what else you can do.
Bottom line: when it becomes too expensive to lend a hand in this country, especially given our historic tradition of volunteerism, you know we’re on the verge of a seismic shift in, yes, life as we know it.
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