When we judge any plan to save Social Security we need to ask whether it cuts the poverty rate among single elderly women and other groups inour society that are still at risk. The poverty rate for all elderly women is 13.1 percent. Women live an average of six years longer than men.
Most women marry men older than themselves who die at younger ages.
Women are therefore three times more likely than men to be widowed, and at age 85 four out of five women are widowed. Because they live longer, women become increasingly dependent on Social Security as they age. Medicare does not cover most home and supportive care, or prescription drugs. Additionally, high co-payments and deductibles have a disproportionate impact on women. Women have more chronic illness and require more access to specialists, leading edge medicine and technology.