The Uncertainty of the Shutdown Impacts Older Americans

We all hoped for a quick end to the shutdown, but it’s already gone past two weeks and, when you read this blog, it will be almost 3 weeks long. The rhetoric has been loud, the blame distributed far and wide and the impact growing. I wrote a blog a couple of weeks ago that laid out some of the short term impacts of the government shutdown with the warning that the longer it lasts the more your healthcare will be affected. That was almost two weeks ago, and the shutdown now fits the classification of a long shutdown, and the end doesn’t seem to be in sight. I’ve been involved in public policy and advocating for seniors for more than 25 years, and I’ve witnessed many long shutdowns and the fact of the matter is that the lawmakers and the President will only allow the shutdown to go so far before one side relents and reaches some sort of compromise. The problem is that we are dealing with a government that is more divided now than when the other shutdowns occurred. I think our lawmakers need to understand the anxiety caused by the uncertainty that surrounds the shutdown and how it affects seniors.

Since my blogs deal with healthcare, I will focus on those impacts, but I do want to spend a little time on some other concerns this shutdown causes. I’m sure you’re like me and have received multiple emails, social media alerts and even seen newscasts discussing how the shutdown will affect our monthly social security payments. Unfortunately, the requirement for anything we receive online centers around convincing us to click on the link so the headline always makes us think that the payments might be withheld requiring us to read further, only to find out that the payments will continue. There are many seniors that need that monthly check and any hint of their payment being in jeopardy is a cause for concern.

There are many of us whose kids and grandkids have already been affected by the shutdown. I live close to an air base that employs thousands of civilian workers. Many of them have been furloughed or are working unpaid until the shutdown is over. It concerns people here. The uncertainty about the Affordable Care Act’s enhanced premium tax credits, which is the biggest reason for the shutdown, has caused insurance companies to predict much higher insurance premiums for 2026 – in some cases they could go up as much as 3 times higher. That doesn’t fit easily into a budget. There was a scare that the military wasn’t going to get paid, then the administration found a temporary fix, but it will need to be addressed again if the shutdown goes much longer. The bottom line is that we worry about our kids, and it can cause us to be anxious.

Uncertainty about our healthcare during this shutdown continues and is only going to get worse. For instance, a few days ago the government announced they were going to pause payments to doctors because of the shutdown. By that afternoon they had rescinded the pause. However, for a few hours we wondered if the doctor we had scheduled an appointment with would be paid. I have friends who have a daughter with special needs. To put pressure on the Democrats to end the shutdown, President Trump ordered massive layoffs across the federal workforce. The firings included roughly a fifth of the U.S. Department of Education – and nearly everyone in its special education division. How anxious is a mother when she hears news like that? There’s some hope that since the states control this service, they could find a way to continue care, but many families will be put into a bad situation if they can’t trust the money will get released and they will be left wondering who will administer the program on the federal level.

I understand that uncertainty and anxiety are difficult things to quantify but you and I both know that they are real, and they affect our lives. We just started our Medicare open enrollment period uncertain about how the many changes to the plans will affect us. There are some areas where insurance companies have quit offering plans. For the first time in my memory there has been a reduction in the number of Medicare prescription drug plans available and the monthly premium, which has historically remained low, could increase substantially. It will increase a minimum of 6% and possibly, with premium caps removed, from $35 to $50. These are changes that we usually don’t need to consider - and now we must factor in this shutdown that doesn’t seem to have an end in sight.

As we get older, we deal with our declining abilities every day. We battle with forgetting what we came into a room to get, we search for a word that was once part of our everyday vocabulary, we wonder whether the new pain we feel is just part of getting older or a harbinger of something serious. In my mind I’m 40 years old but if I were 40 and felt like this, I’d immediately call 911. It’s no secret that change and uncertainty gets harder as you grow older. We do recognize that our world is changing faster than it ever has. It is a miracle how fast we find better ways to do things and make discoveries that keep us healthy or better treat our maladies. What we don’t need is self-inflicted worry that wastes time and resources. Our lawmakers need to understand that the uncertainty and anxiety of the shutdown has an impact on older Americans. They need to resolve their differences and fund our government.

Best, Thair