Senior citizen Carmela DiMaria said she's gone from having a healthy savings account to struggling every day to get by.
AUDUBON -- Carmela DiMaria did all the right things. The Haddon Township senior citizen worked hard for decades in a well-paying career in medical technology, built up a healthy savings account and kept her financial house in order.
Then, cancer hit. And her sister suffered a sudden, debilitating illness and needed her help. The cancer went into remission, but DiMaria couldn't return to work, and the bills kept piling up.
Before she knew it, DMaria found herself at the end of her savings, living social security check to social security check, putting her unexpected expenses on credit cards and selling her furniture to pay off debts.
"Life goes on for seniors, no matter how well-prepared we are. In my case, it's just not enough," said DiMaria at a press conference Thursday, when U.S. Rep. Donald Norcross announced a new legislative effort to ease financial strains on seniors like DiMaria.
The congressman is proposing a bill that would confront fiscal issues facing seniors on two different fronts -- by linking social security cost-of-living increases to a more accurate metric and by preventing medicare premiums from exceeding more than 30 percent of those increases.
"We can do better and we will do better," said Norcross at the Senior Citizens United Community Services facility in Audubon Thursday afternoon.
Congressman fighting for wage equity
One main issue with the cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, for senior's social security checks is that it's tied to the consumer price index for urban wage earners and clerical workers, he said. That formula, known as CPI-W, takes into account the price of a range of items and costs seniors don't buy, like children's clothes and nursery school costs.
"It's calculated in never-never land," said Norcross.
He's instead proposing to tie COLA payments to a separate consumer price index for the elderly, or CPI-E, which is calculated based on seniors' actual expenses and supported by the AARP.
"If we have a fair system, that will go a long way in helping our seniors," said Camden County Freeholder Carmen Rodriguez, the board's liaison for senior services who spoke out about her support of the bill at Thursday's press conference.
The legislation will also tackle the other issue facing seniors who rely on social security to get by -- that even on the occasions they do see a bump up in payments due to a cost-of-living adjustment, increases in their Medicaid premiums cancel it out. Given that the costs for most goods and services increase each year, Norcross said that means seniors are in more difficult financial spots than ever before.
"The little bit of money they do get, it goes right back into Medicare," said Norcross. "That's not how this system is supposed to work."
He said the bill would install a "circuit breaker" that would prevent those premiums from going above 30 percent of the cost-of-living increase, which it has seven times in the past 15 years. At least three of those years, he said, premium increases exceeded 60 percent of the cost-of-living adjustment.
The bill joins two other recent legislative efforts Norcross has taken on -- one that would increase minimum wage to $15 by 2023 and another to push for equal pay for women -- that aren't likely to find broad support in the Republican-led Congress.
The political climate in D.C. isn't changing his plans, however.
"The other option is to do nothing, and we see what happens with a do-nothing Congress," said Norcross, who added the effort is part of a broader vision to put seniors and those in need on a fairer playing field.
"This a perfect opportunity to push that discussion down the road," said Norcross. "We all know that it needs to happen, it's just a matter of who is going to lead it."
Michelle Caffrey may be reached at mcaffrey@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @ShellyCaffrey. Find the South Jersey Times on Facebook.