Kaine Holds Listening Session at Healthy Generations Agency on Aging
Challenges facing America's seniors include prescription costs and financial exploitation, participants say.
By Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
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Just yesterday, Melissa Aylor told U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, she received a report of a senior citizen who had been scammed out of $1 million.
It was one of five reports of financial exploitation she received in one day.
Aylor works in adult protective services with Stafford County’s department of social services, investigating reports of abuse, neglect, and exploitation of adults over age 60. She said scamming of senior citizens is occurring at a higher rate than ever before.
“We have a client who sold her house believing she would be moving in with, I believe, Alan Jackson in Tennessee,” Aylor said during a listening session Kaine held at Healthy Generations Agency on Aging Wednesday morning. “She’s now homeless, living in hotels and bouncing between the five jurisdictions” in the Fredericksburg area.
Tim Gammel, who works in Caroline County’s social services department, also said his caseload has “exploded” with reports from clients who were scammed after they clicked on a phishing email or text message.
The financial exploitation of seniors, the often-prohibitive cost of prescription drugs, and the extreme difficulty of navigating Medicare were the main issues that panelists at the listening session wanted to discuss with Kaine.
Pam Beasley, who recently retired from Fredericksburg City Public Schools and enrolled in Medicare, said she now faces paying almost $2,000 for a three-month supply of the three medicines she takes to treat her diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis.
She said her Medicare will also no longer cover the cost of her continuous glucose monitor, and since she can’t afford the cost, she will have to go back to pricking her finger several times each day to monitor her blood sugar levels.
Susan Clark, who counsels people through the Medicare enrollment process as a volunteer with the Virginia Insurance Counseling and Assistance Program (VICAP)—which Healthy Generations administers—said clients stretch out their prescriptions by taking them on alternating months, or by not taking them at all.
Wilmette Williams, a VICAP counselor who retired from the CIA, said she kept her federal government insurance, even though it is costly, because it has better prescription drug coverage.
Kaine, who is running for a third term in the Senate, said that effective in 2026, as part of the federal Inflation Reduction Act, Medicare will be able to negotiate for prescription drug pricing with pharmaceutical companies—something it wasn’t previously able to do, even though the federal Veteran’s Administration has been able to negotiate prices.
He said the results of price negotiations for 10 commonly prescribed drugs, including the blood-thinner Eliquis, show that seniors will save $1 billion on the cost of their medications, and the federal treasury will save $6 billion.
The Inflation Reduction Act also lowers the cap on out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs from $3,000 to $2,000, effective January 1 of 2026, Kaine said.
Though this will help people afford their prescriptions, it won’t cover the cost of medical supplies like the glucose monitor, he noted.
Kaine said he understands that the process of enrolling in and navigating Medicare is extremely difficult and asked if the VICAP counselors offer free education sessions for the community.
Pat Holland, who directs Health Generations, said the problem is that only 27% of the population is aware that there is an area agency on aging that can offer this kind of assistance.
The Older Americans Act—which was just reauthorized with bipartisan support in the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee on which Kaine serves—created a national network of agencies on aging to help address the needs of senior citizens.
The agencies receive federal funding, and though Kaine said they have strong bipartisan support, they still have to fight for appropriations each budget cycle.
And, Holland said, there is still great reluctance in American culture to talk about aging.
“When you have white hair, young people look at us like we have less worth,” she said.
Another issue is that many older Americans are not tech-savvy and may have transportation barriers that prevent them from reaching their local agency on aging.
But the growing rates of scamming and isolation—which kills at a greater rate than cigarette smoking, Holland said—coupled with a confusing health care and insurance systems means Americans need the unbiased and legitimate education and social services that these agencies provide.
“When people make it to us [at the department of social services] they’re in crisis and there’s not much we can do,” Aylor said.
Kaine was concerned to hear about the prevalence of scamming and said he wants to look into ways to protect older Americans from financial exploitation.
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