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Increasing income support to poor Elderly might improve health

Newswise — A modest boost in financial support to the elderly poor might reduce old-age disability and be a good investment in public health, according to a large-scale, nationwide study.

“There’s a lot of research that shows that poverty is bad for your health. So, if we increase people’s income through income support policies, hopefully those policies will also lead to health improvements,” said lead author Pamela Herd, a professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin.

The researchers analyzed census data between 1990 and 2000, focusing on single adults 65 and older, living in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, comprising 5 percent of the total U.S. population.

An increase of $100 per month in the maximum Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefit led to an 11 percent reduction in the number of people reporting a disability, the researchers found.

The study defined “disability” as a health condition lasting six months or more that made it difficult or impossible to go out alone.

The study, which appears in the March issue of The Milbank Quarterly, correlated increases in income support via SSI, a program designed to provide financial aid to the poorest elderly or disabled Americans.

Because SSI payments vary by state and can go up or down over time, they provided a convenient way to test the relationship.

Stephen Crystal, Ph.D., associate director for health services research at Rutgers University’s Institute of Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research, said he was skeptical of the study’s conclusions.

“There’s an implication that the important determinant of health outcomes is economic resources, rather than access to health care,” he said.

“I think that is too strong a claim to make from results like this.” He thought the effect sizes were implausibly large and questionably short-term.

The study’s authors acknowledge the need for further analyses to confirm its reliability, as well as the need to examine other income support policies.

Herd said her goal was to illustrate how social policies influence health.

“We want policymakers to be aware that when they make changes in Social Security policy or the SSI program, that they may just not be impacting older people’s economic security, they may be impacting their health outcomes,” she said.

The Milbank Quarterly: Heidi Bresnahan, publications manager, at (212) 355-8400.

Herd P, Schoeni RF, House JS. Upstream solutions: does the Supplemental Security Income program reduce disability in the elderly? The Milbank Quarterly 86(1), 2008.