Steve Corrick: 50 Year Olds are Unemployable Without a Public (Health Insurance) Option

[Demeter]

http://blog.buzzflash.com/contributors/2026



...So here's the dilemma: There are increasing numbers of 50 and older workers who cannot find good paying jobs commensurate with their successes and credentials because of the cost of providing them with health care. So what do they do instead?

With No Insurance, Unemployed Workers Can:

1. Retire early. If there's some small pension out there, such as one from the government or the military, it's easier to retire than to keep fighting for a job when your health insurance costs make employers unable to hire you.

2. Go bankrupt. If you have serious medical conditions, the only way to get Medicaid is to go bankrupt. Then the government will take care of you. This means you have to blow through your pension that you've worked all your life to save, and that means that you'll be living on the government dole for the rest of your life.

3. Get a job at a convenience store. As long as they don't have to pay benefits, they can pay you $7.50 per hour and know that you'll probably show up for work every day, probably won't miss work because you took Ecstasy and danced all night, and won't mess up the reconciliation of the store receipts at the end of the day.

4. Be a consultant, independent contractor, or self-employed realtor. You can hire out and your employer won't have to pay benefits. This can sometimes offer you good money and, if they hire you as a consultant, your employer gets all your expertise and none of your health insurance costs. You, on the other hand, are still stuck with soaring (or unavailable) health insurance, with the hope that you won't keel over and blow it for your family and retirement and with hope is that you can scrape through until 65 when Medicare kicks in.

5. Live on the street. According to a 2006 The New York Times article an ever increasing percentage of the homeless in New York are between 55 and 65.

6. Get married to get access to someone else's insurance coverage.

Problems Without a Public Option:

1. You'll probably have to use up your pension. You know, the one you've worked all these years to save that was supposed to help you retire in comfort. Your problem, of course, was just that you didn't know you were starting a savings plan so that it could be harvested at 55 by some pharmaceutical company or some hospital. Silly you! You believed that crap about saving for a comfortable retirement.

2. You'll quit contributing to Social Security at any significant rate and will put additional strain on a system you should have been contributing to at your highest pre-retirement levels.

3. American companies won't be able to hire you -- even though they desperately need experienced, dedicated employees -- because the company's accountants and shareholders won't let them.

4. Without proper and affordable medical care, your health may decline, but then again, there's always bankruptcy and Medicaid.

5. You'll probably have to seek early government assistance or accept whatever minimal level of Social Security they'll offer. After all, both still pay better than the greeter's job at Wal-Mart.

On the other hand, if, pray God, we get a public option whose premium doesn't discriminate based on age or pre-existing conditions, the entire job situation for older workers will change beyond belief virtually overnight.

With a Public Option:

1. Employers will be able to hire you (or not) based on your experience and qualifications. What a concept! Maybe someone with a degree and a 30-year track record of job success might actually make a good new hire? Get outta' here....

2. Fewer older employees will lose their high-paying positions, because the cost of their health care will no longer overshadow their continuing ability to do their job well.

3. More workers will work extra years before retiring. Why quit early if you're making good money and you're contributing to the success of your company?

4. With more workers working extra years, some of the increasing pressure on Social Security will be relieved.

5. Unions will be able to negotiate for better pay and better safety. They won't have to fight for expensive health care benefits that certainly offer less benefit for younger workers -- except, of course, when they really, really, really need them.

6. American corporations can be come more competitive as the crushing health care burden that sunk General Motors are no longer eating as heavily into their profits.

7. Businesses will make fewer mistakes driven by youthful exuberance and inexperience. It's great that younger workers have the drive and energy to push goals forward, but it makes sense to have top management decisions made not just by youthful visionaries, but also by those who've seen the consequences of rash decisions made by too much testosterone and Red Bull. (The Internet boom comes to mind.)

8. Uninsured health costs paid by the government would go down.

9. Hospitals could stay in business because they would reduce unpaid care provided to those without health insurance.

10. The general health of the 55-65 demographic ought to improve a bit as needed medical care can be accessed as needed, rather than only when situation become desperate.

11. State funded workman's compensation costs would go down, thereby making American employers more competitive.

12. More money will be available for banks to loan, because American savings rates will go up, when IRAs are no longer bled dry by medical bills.

13. Bankruptcies and foreclosures will go down. 50% of all bankruptcies are medically related and 25% of those facing foreclosure say their inability to pay is related to medical problems.

14. When we die, we'd get to quit having to answer all those embarrassing questions from St. Peter about why the richest country on Earth wasn't willing to provide basic health care to many of its citizens. ("And the King shall answer and say to them, Truly I say to you, Inasmuch as you have done it to one of the least of these my brothers, you have done it to me." Matthew 25:40.)

So our choices are stark:

1. We can continue as we are, with our top priority clearly demonstrated as the need to offer an earnings bonus to insurance and health companies at terrible personal, physical, and financial cost to a generation of older, injured, and sick workers. Or,

2. We can create a public option that covers all uninsured workers, thereby reducing health care costs by $150 billion over 10 years (according the Congressional Budget Office). We'll also increase American competitiveness, increase America's healthiness, dramatically reduce its medical costs, bolster Social Security, and we'll end the embarrassment of being the only first-world country that lets millions and millions of its citizens suffer without health care.



Steve Corrick is a Montana realtor, verified voting and climate change activist and 56 year old who, like most members of his generation, desperately needs better insurance options.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

1. This is quite true.

And LOTS of us are quite educated, have graduate degrees (one or more) and haven't been employed since the middle of the Clinton years.

[DollyM]

19. wish I had saved the money i spent on that Master's degree!

My husband and I both have Master's degrees and can't find jobs anymore. He is 56 and I am 47. All that anyone wants to hire anymore is someone with a grad degree who is 25 years old and has 30 years experience!

[DaLittle Kitty]

27. Yep! I Know Someone Who Got Turned Down By Humana Just 'cause He Was Over 50!

That's our system! :puke:

[mudplanet]

32. As an unemployed 55 year old

I'm beginning to experience this. I have two graduate degrees, and a professional license. But I've been unemployed for over a year and I'm beginning to think it's not my professional credentials or my references.

[fasttense]

50. No it's not!!!!!!

I hate to rain on your parade but I'm afraid people are being led down the primrose path.

The public option for health care will NOT help 45 and older workers.

My husband and I are over 50 and have medical coverage through the military. We were both laid off about last summer and our unemployment is about to run out. We make it clear at every interview that we have good health care coverage. It hasn't helped. Despite years of managerial experience, we can't even get assistant manger or supervisor jobs at retail stores or in any other industry.

But it may be due to the fact that the people doing the interviews either don't believe us or are still afraid we may opt for their over priced, crappy health insurance once we get hired.

Even if you have the public option, the company that hires you must consider the possibility that at some time down the road you may change your mind and decide to take their health insurance (which you have every right to do once you are hired).

They will not hire you if you are 45 and older for fear that you MAY opt into their medical plan and they may get stuck paying massive cost for your poor health.

The public option wont help you get hired in today's labor market.

The only answer to this problem is if the employer were totally out of the health care picture. And the only way to do that is to have single payer throughout the United States.

[truedelphi]

54. You make some good points. +1. n/t

[boomerbust]

2. That's me

Had to use up pension before getting SSDI. Convenience store and dish washing jobs impossible to get.

[eomer]

3. Private options won't be able to "discriminate based on age or pre-existing conditions"

Disclosure: I'm in favor of single-payer. If we can't get that then I consider a public option the bare minimum that we can accept.

But, that said, we need to be accurate about the options and I believe you are misstating how the private options will work.

Private insurance cannot be allowed to continue in its present form even when we have a new public option in place. They can't be allowed to exclude people for pre-existing conditions because if they can then they will cherry-pick the good risks and shuffle the bad ones off to the public option.

Similarly, private insurance options cannot be allowed to charge higher premiums for individuals with health problems. They cannot be allowed to experience rate groups (like employer-based plans). Because if they can then, again, they will cherry-pick the good risks because the bad risks will gravitate to the public option where the rates would not be health-related or experience rated.

So, no, the private options cannot be allowed to operate the way you imply they would. H.R. 3200 has provisions that make significant changes to private insurance so that they cannot consider pre-existing conditions and can have their premiums vary only on a few limited criteria. Those criteria include age, but with limits on how much they can raise due to age, and family coverage, but with some limit on how much higher it can be than individual coverage. I believe they also may be allowed to vary based on geographic region.

Bottom line, under H.R. 3200, both public and private options have to operate under the same rules. Both of them have to accept all comers and both of them have to offer a consistent set of rates to all comers with variation only as per those certain permitted factors. They can set their own premium rates but they will have to set them at a level where someone will want to buy their product as compared with the public option, which will provide the same exact benefits.

I believe that H.R. 3200 also has a grandfather provision for existing insurance plans and I haven't looked at its details, but hopefully it is crafted in such a way that existing plans will be pushed out of existence within some reasonable transition period.

[bvar22]

8. According to the CBO which scored HR 3200 last week,

*The projected enrollment in the "Public Option" will be LESS than 10 Million by 2019.

[eridani]

40. True, they have to accept all comers, but they can charrge older or

--sicker people twice as much from what I've read. Things are constantly in flux here, though.

[drm604]

4. You may have just explained why I can't find work.

:(

[truedelphi]

10. I have twenty years experience in my field

Hospice and home health.

Glowing references. And interview after interview, I went in and talked to those hiring at nursing agencies.

Finally in desperation, I asked one woman interviewing me, "Why is it that I get the feeling that I won't be hired?"

She replied, "Honey, we cannot hire you because we cannot afford the increase in health insurance premiums that someone over the age of fifty would cause our firm to get hit with."

Now if I had one of those "Capture everything" cell phones, and had the phone turned on to record, I would have myself a lawsuit. But I never was into the cell phone technology.

I feel that any fifty year old plus who becomes unemployed ends up in a "ghetto" such that many of us know a bit of what it is like to be Jewish in the thirties. We sit in our homes waiting for the other shoe to fall. Unable to pay our bills, no hope in the future, problems with our health, etc.

In my case another field was open to me. But although much more glamorous on the surface, than home health was, it does not pay the bills.

My hope in the new Administration was shattered the moment that Barack Obama said that we needed training. Mr President I do not need training. I have been taught how to operate the oxygen machinery needed in respiratory illnesses. I have been taught the physical therapy exercises needed for those with spinal problems, or those who have had hip surgery. I know CPR, and understand how constipation can mimic stroke -and have thus saved one or two lives that doctors had consigned to terminal failure. I understand which medications should not be prescribed with other medications, and thus have arranged for new medical consults, again saving lives.

Mr President what I need is Universal Single Payer Health Care. So until you can get that for me, just shut the F*ck up about what I need or don't need.

Because if the option that you are promoting involves insurance companies not willing to take on new members of my age group, I am consigned to being under employed. And to never seeing the paychecks that I was seeing in the past.

[raccoon]

5. C'mon, yall, let's Rec this one into the STRATOSPHERE! Rec'd, Rec'd, Rec'd! nt

[Bluenorthwest]

6. I would suggest a change to number 6 of part one

"If you are a heterosexual approved by the Faith Based Office of Discriminatory Policy, you can marry to get benefits. If you are GLBT you are unable to do so, but should feel good about pleasing the President's bigoted pals with your suffering."
Today, my partner lacks insurance, which he's have from me if we were approved by Rick Warren. If I were you, my partner would have insurance. My partner of 17 years or so. But because of the religionist bigots, he does not have it. Under the current bill, that would remain true, even for those who are legal domestic partners. The bill discriminates against GLBT families. People here love that part of it, and rush to demand support of bigotry as proof of loyalty to some politician. Loyalty to principle or to neighbors is not in their thinking at all. They will gladly pick my pocket to pay their bills, to insure their families.
So Part One, Number 6 is good for real citizens only. As approved by Mega-church Inc.

[Uncle Joe]

7. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Demeter.

[Demeter]

21. Glad to Be of Service, As Always, Uncle Joe

[whathehell]

9. Quite insightful.

I'm in that age group and have had trouble finding a job and NEVER thought of that as a reason...It certainly makes sense.

[freebrew]

14. Unemployed at 56..

one of less than 25 people in the US that can do what I did. I 'wrote' the program.
But, because of outsourcing and bad business decisions by execs, fired for lack of business.
I collected unemployment for a year or so, now working for 1/3 what I was getting before and have 'insurance' through my
spouse at double the cost I was paying before.
I am an expert mechanic, welder, mechanical engineer and business analyst with excellent references but no one will hire me.

When I transferred 401K funds, the accountant told me it would be tough 'at my age' something I never even considered because I had such a good work record.

[whathehell]

22. That really sucks.....I hope things get better for you, really.

[progressoid]

11. Retire early

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:
:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:
:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:
:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:
:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:
:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:


Oh, that's rich.

[tomreedtoon]

12. How can we make the Big Boys care about us?

About the only thing I can see that will break through their wall of indifference and ego is something physically threatening. I don't have to get any more specific than that. Since they only care about themselves, doing something that would hurt "themselves" is about the only course of action.

[shadowknows69]

13. I submit to you 40 and older is even pretty tough.

Particularly when there's a glut of people in your field. Youth rules.

[xxqqqzme]

18. Yeppers. I was unemployable @ 47

because of health insurance & insurance cos deciding that my permanent & stationary 'injuries' constituted a 'pre-existing condition'. My son had just graduated from high school, I had a great job that paid well & I had just inherited a wad of cash, totally unexpected, from an aunt. I thought my 'retirement' was set. I'd work a few more years, add to the inheritance and I would be living my dream of traveling. Then some uninsured, looking the other way, license revoked idiot slammed into the car. Just like that unemployable.

[valerief]

15. Excellent! Thanks. nt

[handmade34]

16. I am employed only

because I was willing to leave my home and work on the road 100% of the year in a job that does not require my degree. ...never thought I would have a problem getting a job and then I turned 50. This is certainly not what I had imagined when I got my education and made my plans...

[northernlights]

17. Thank you for this

I needed another reminder that it's NOT MY FAULT that I can't get hired.

I am about to temporarily settle for a variation on option #3. Actually, Subway will be slightly better than convenience store because there is no heavy lifting involved at all and I think a free decent meal. It's also better than the Dunkin' Donuts job I got to turn down after the Subway offer came in, because there's a lot less running around, no heavy lifting, no stupid headset and healthier food.

Imagine this, every time I get depressed at the thought of working at Subway, I look at the bright side. I could be destroying my health at Dunkin' Donuts.

[Lifelong Protester]

20. Many in this demographic (and I am one) want to keep working

and NOT take early retirement. Can't someone come up with the figures of how much folks in this demo would contribute to Social Security by working a few more years and not retiring? Wouldn't that be money that could go into the public options/health insurance pool?

[2Design]

23. Wow - verified why I got the standardized letters they picked someone

else even though I was qualified, or they don't respond at all, or you see the newspapers who say they can't find qualified candidates for jobs you applied for in their company - so you write them and they send you the form letter for a job you never applied for.

[JackDragna]

24. I'm not convinced single payer will fix this.

People of the age range in this article should be earning their highest salaries during these years, saving for retirement. Of course, now all corporations care about now is the bottom line, so they fire as many people as possible who draw high salaries (who aren't their buds in management). My fear is that even if we get single payer health insurance, the job situation for middle-aged Americans won't change. That's not to say it won't help some, but hand-in-hand, Americans must insist that its workers are treated like something other than garbage.

[omega minimo]

25. KR +72

:yourock:

[Oldtimeralso]

26. My Company Tossed Me Out on my 59th Birthday,

I was medically disqualified from my job. I was all set to retire at 60 which you could do if you had 30 or more years in the industry, 37 in my case. But the fact that I was medically disqualified automatically qualified me for a disability. I was lucky that my wife still is working and I became dependent on her coverage, at least until March of 2010 when I qualify for Medicare.

[annabanana]

28. Time to petition Skinner for "multiple-rec privileges!. . n/t

[Ysabela]

29. I seem to recall Jesus asking the blind for their insurance info...

It's been a long time since I've read the bible, but I absolutely remember Jesus turning away the blind if they didn't have an insurance card. It's in there somewhere.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

30. I have two friends and a relative who lost their jobs in their fifties

and have never worked full-time since.

One of them reminded me that it had been 13 years since her last full-time job.

All took Social Security at 62, just to have SOME steady income after selling houses, depleting 401(k)s, etc.

I didn't think there was another reason besides plain old age discrimination.

[Lorien]

31. I thought that over 60% of all bankruptcies were caused by medical debt

either way, medical costs are obviously a MAJOR contributor to America's economic problems. It seems like "fixing the economy" really isn't that difficult-if our reps had a backbone. Hold the banks and lenders accountable, make single payer universal coverage available to all, tax corporations and tax them even more if they outsource. We'd see a huge improvement in our situation...but will any of it happen? Not without election reform and a return of the Fairness doctrine, it won't.

[midnight]

33. Recommending this because I had never understood how many

ways to discriminate. Boy they think of everything don't they. Insurace tied into your job, and you won't get hired based on age because the insurance co. finds you to risky.

[Downwinder]

34. There are some other pitfalls up there.

If you are on SSI/Medicaid when you are eligible for SS early retirement you get kicked off SSI which means you lose medicaid and are on your own till age 65 when you can get Medicare.

[The River]

35. This Is Where I Am

60 and laid off.

[grahamhgreen]

36. Single Payer woudl be the best choice, then everyone is covered all the time, age becomes irrelevant

hr676.org

[madamesilverspurs]

37. We have PhDs applying for work

as field laborers, picking crops. I'm 61 and disabled. The temp jobs I used to be able to pick up now go to those who are younger and stronger. At least I have Medicare.

I was thinking today that if I had the physical ability to do so, I'd go through the craigslist "free" section in my area, go pick that stuff up and have a yard sale. Wouldn't be much, but it would be something coming in. Back in the days when I was working, I'd go once a week to auctions and buy stuff; it would stay in the back of my pickup until the weekend, when I'd take it to the flea market and sell it. The following week, same routine. Then it was for 'mad' money, and some weeks I did well enough that I could cover utilities for a couple of months from the proceeds. Had there been a craigslist with free stuff, I probably would have bypassed the auction altogether. I noticed that there's also a 'barter' section on craigslist. Underground economy, here we come.

[pauldg0]

38. Thank you for reminding me of that....

....I'm over sixty and still quite ready to work. This may get me back on someones payroll so I don't have to retire.

[aggiesal]

39. What nobody seems to mention are ...

the incidentals that we pay towards medical insurance.

For example, for each I car I own, and I have to purchase comprehensive
medical insurance. This insurance, I think, is mandatory here in California,
and it isn't cheap.

If there is a public option, everybody's medical is covered, so I would not be
required to purchase this insurance.

This means that I have that cash now available.

[Digit]

41. Well, I knew this was the reason I couldn't find a job

I am turning 58 soon, and don't have any pre-existing conditions besides hypertension which is under control.
I enjoy working and staying busy. I have heard complaints about the younger set not showing up for work, dressing inappropriately, coming in late too frequently, and taking too many days off to go to the beach or whatever.
They tell me they know the more mature crowd does not exhibit these behaviors, perhaps it was how we were raised? I don't know the reason and I really don't care.
What I DO care about is the outright discrimination against workers over 50.
It's all about the bottom line.
I have been unemployed for almost a year and have had only ONE interview!

Anyone with good insurance looking for a younger looking, liberal wife who does have assets?
(just covering my bases):)

[eridani]

42. That's why those of us lucky enough to be able to retire early should stay out of the labor force

I'll do part time or temporary work, but trying to get back into the work force on a full time basis is just taking a job away from someone who needs it a lot more.

I was laid off right before turning 62, and the unused vacation and severance pay put me over my 62nd birthday. I have a defined benefits pension that I was eligible for, am collecting Social Security, and my husband has Social Security and Medicare. I got my 401k out of the stock market in February 2008, and actually had a 0.5% positive rate of return. Paid off house and no debt, and have been lucky enough not to have had any financial emergencies, so we can live comfortably if more frugally than we did while we were both working. My only problem is finding some health care option for myself until I turn 65.

[FrenchieCat]

43. Too bad this article ain't in the New York Times!

[LittleGirl]

44. I turn 50 in 3 months

And my spouse and I are in the process of leaving Germany and moving to the states. We will be unemployed because if you get a Visa for your immigrant spouse (and the green card) it has a time limit. Use it or lose it! Lucky us!
So we have to move back even though the company won't transfer us.

Everything you mention is a concern for us (in searching for jobs). He has an MBA and I have a B.S. degree that I finally finished 4 yrs ago. I got it because I was tired of being underpaid with 20 yrs of experience in my field. That's what you're supposed to do. The degree was supposed to verify your skills.

Now this. I am faced with age discrimination even though there are laws to prevent this and health care is not single payer.
Where is the outrage and who can I contact to make sure it isn't happening to me/us?
Even if I am discriminated against, how can I prove it? I won't even bother to mention that I fear my husband won't find a job because so many are on this 'hire American' rampage (even though he's married to an American).

My husband (raised on NHS in the UK) believes that now is not the time for Obama to introduce and push for healthcare (economy). I had a heated exchange with him last night to remind him that once we leave here, he won't have health insurance anymore.
My argument, People First. Economy second.
The economy won't recover until people can get the health care they need and it should have never been tied to your employer. Never.

/rant over

[Enthusiast]

45. One thing for certain,

There are a lot of us 50+ year olds in one hell of a mess. They closed my factory - the second one that closed on me. I'm 56 and (un)fortunate enough to be fully disabled.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

46. Preach It

"14. When we die, we'd get to quit having to answer all those embarrassing questions from St. Peter about why the richest country on Earth wasn't willing to provide basic health care to many of its citizens. ("And the King shall answer and say to them, Truly I say to you, Inasmuch as you have done it to one of the least of these my brothers, you have done it to me." Matthew 25:40.)"

[liberal N proud]

47. Someone better tell my wife.

She thinks that now my company has froze my pension there is no reason to stay where I work.

[katkat]

48. hear, hear

While I don't wish being in their 50s/60s, highly educated, with an excellent track record, and having no credence with 20 and 30 somethings doing the hiring on anyone else, it is a bit of a relief to know I'm not alone out here.

[fasttense]

49. I don't believe the public option for health care will help 50 and older workers.

My husband and I are over 50 and have medical coverage through the military. We were both laid off about last summer and our unemployment is about to run out. We make it clear at every interview that we have good health care coverage. It hasn't helped. Despite years of managerial experience, we can't even get assistant manger or supervisor jobs at retail stores or any other industry.

But it may be due to the fact that the people doing the interviews either don't believe us or are still afraid we may opt for their over priced, crappy health insurance.

Even if you have the public option, the company that hires you must consider the possibility that at some time down the road you may change your mind and decide to take their health insurance (which you have every right to do so once you are hired).

They will not hire you if your 45 and older for fear that you may opt into their medical plan and they may get stuck paying massive cost for your health care.

The public option wont help you get hired in today's labor market .

[KG]

51. bunk.

fuck a bunch of 'public option'. it's just rearranging deck chairs. a steaming pile of 'incrementalism' bullshit. we don't 'health insurance' in this country, we need health care. it works all over the world, it can work here.

there's really no valid excuse for anything less than single payer/universal coverage.

[Demeter]

53. I Think We Are All In Agreement With You Here

Now, about that man in the White HOuse...

[SheilaT]

52. Someone better tell the hospital that just hired

me. I'm sixty and now have what passes for good health insurance in this country.

added on edit:
At least as long ago as the 1970's older workers were commonly finding it very difficult to find jobs. Health care costs were rarely, if ever, considered the problem. The problem was a perception on the part of mostly younger managers that the older workers wouldn't be as good at the job. Or the younger manager was uncomfortable at the very thought of managing someone old enough to be mom or dad.

Right now we are in the crappiest economy since the Great Depression, and so finding a job is hard for almost everyone. It's especially tough in fields where there's a surplus of potential employees. It's even tougher if you were at the top of a very specialized field that simply doesn't have a lot of openings.

I'm lucky in that I came back into the job market after being out for nearly thirty years raising kids and since I was looking at entry-level positions there's a lot out there. I had a paralegal degree and found work doing that, but also found out I wasn't well suited to the field. So I simply started looking for any kind of administrative assistant sort of job, had no trouble getting interviews and usually got the second interview. That tells me my age wasn't really a factor. I often got specific feedback that made it clear the person hired simply was a better fit for the job.

At the suggestion of a cousin who is a nurse -- and nurses are in very high demand almost everywhere and that's a job that pays decently -- I applied at my local hospital and am now working in patient registration. I have benefits and I can survive on what it pays. I'm certainly underemployed, but it's a lot better than total unemployment.

[fasttense]

56. You are the exception that proves the rule. n/t

[SheilaT]

57. Really? How does my being hired

at age 60 prove the rule that no one over fifty gets hired? I somehow suspect that I'm not the only person my age to get a job in this country recently. Not even a decent job. I have two women friends who are both a couple of years older than I am who got hired for good jobs recently. Maybe we are literally the only three recent hires of this age, but I really doubt it.

[fasttense]

59. The original poster never implied every person 50 and older can't find a job.

He posted: "There are increasing numbers of 50 and older workers who cannot find good paying jobs commensurate with their successes and credentials because of the cost of providing them with health care."

So, the discussion is over the fact that an increasing number of people 50 and over can't find a Good job, commensurate with their success and credentials. So, since you and all your over 60 friends are able to find good jobs commensurate with your success and credentials, you (and all your happy friends) are NOT in that increasing number. Therefore you proved what the poster said is true. Increasing number is not the entire population.

[KoKo]

55. Kick!

[Iwillnevergiveup]

58. There's another sinister factor at work here

besides age discrimination. That is a poor credit score. So if you're over 50 (shame on you!), laid off/fired/downsized, gettin' behind on your mortgage and bills, a prospective employer can rule you out on the basis of your newly lowered credit rating. This strikes me as a handy way to get around the ageism issue and potential lawsuits.