If you have no family members to support you, you will have spent most of your life as an addict gaming the social welfare system, so you have barely worked, which means when you “retire” your Social Security is about $700/month, and that’s it for your income.
You have no pension, no 401(k), nothing else. This means you also qualify for food stamps, and Medicare, so your food and medical are somewhat covered.
Your income will be “too low” to qualify for a lot of senior housing, so you will wait on the waitlist for a while for the place you do qualify for, where your rent will be about $200/month.
When you need in depth medical care – for example you fall and break your hip – Medicare does cover it, but you’re relegated to facilities that accept Medicare; you’re in and you’re out, this isn’t private care luxury.
Once a year you get electrical assistance through signing up for LIHEAP & some utilities have an ongoing low income & senior discount rate. They often don’t have internet or cable (this can depend again on the utility provider because there is low income internet rates)
You receive food stamps which for a single person can be a good portion of you food budget – some supplement this by participating in the local community gardens and/or visiting the food bank once or twice a month. A lot of the seniors I worked with traded food amongst themselves in their housing complexes
For transportation most use whatever public transportation is available and for medical treatments there’s a shuttle system in place in most areas (it’s tied to medicaid) that will get you back and forth to doctors, hospitals, etc. It’s not the most convenient and I’ve had to walk through with folks that have essentially been stranded cause the taxis won’t get them when they can charge more (usually during rush hour) so key is getting out early to not have to wait hours for your pick up
Then medical is usually tied between medicare for preventative and medicaid to pick up the rest.
– SoullessCycle, – ToqueDeFe78
Theodore Lee is the editor of Caveman Circus. He strives for self-improvement in all areas of his life, except his candy consumption, where he remains a champion gummy worm enthusiast. When not writing about mindfulness or living in integrity, you can find him hiding giant bags of sour patch kids under the bed.