Federal poverty line grossly underestimates the needs of California's seniors says new UCLA report

The FPL, the official federal measure of poverty, is an outdated one, said Wallace. Developed four decades ago and using consumption surveys from the 1950s, the federal measure is based solely on the cost of the basic food budget needed to meet minimum nutritional requirements. Not only does FPL fail to account for the costs of housing and transportation, noted Wallace, but it does not include medical costs, which can be particularly debilitating for the elderly. It also fails to account for the higher costs of living in California. The Elder Index, in contrast, provides a calculation of a basic cost of living for retired adults age 65 and older for every California county.

“The Elder Index for California takes into account the actual costs for housing, food, transportation, out-of-pocket medical expenses and other necessary spending,” said Wallace.

The UCLA Center for Health Policy Research based its calculations using widely accepted and credible national and state data sources such as the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Geographically relevant data was used for each county in California, reflecting local market rates for items such as housing, food, and health care.

The policy brief will be presented at a legislative hearing in Sacramento on February 27, and was made possible by grants from several California foundations and aging agencies to the Insight Center for Community Economic Development and the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. L. Cricel Molina, MPH, a graduate student researcher at the CHPR, was a co-author of the brief.

A county-by-county listing of the cost of living is in the full report, which can be found starting tomorrow at www.healthpolicy.ucla.edu/elder_index08feb.html.

The UCLA Center for Health Policy Research is one of the nation's leading health policy research centers and the premier source of health policy information for California. Established in 1994, the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research is based in the School of Public Health and affiliated with the School of Public Affairs.