Wendy Jones, 71, has been caring for her husband, Roy, for 30 years since he was diagnosed with brain cancer, but the Palm Beach County couple is running out of money and worried about how they’ll put food on the table.
Jones worked as a paralegal for decades before quitting her job in the mid-2000s after being diagnosed with brain cancer, and her husband was permanently disabled in a workplace accident in 1992. Though they both receive Social Security benefits, they spend thousands of dollars out of pocket on medical expenses, even with insurance, and their savings are dwindling year by year, according to financial documents viewed by Business Insider.
Jones is one of millions of older Americans who have health problems and rely on Social Security to get by. In recent months, dozens of older Americans have told BI they have to keep working to supplement their Social Security and pensions, but for Jones and many others, continuing to work is difficult given their health problems.
Jones, who works part-time, said she relies on buying frozen meals and taking out a reverse mortgage loan. She worries that another medical emergency expense could put her in the red.
Breadwinner of the family
Ms. Jones grew up in Fort Lauderdale with her three siblings and described her as having “a very happy, normal, healthy upbringing.” She went on to become a civil litigation paralegal in West Palm Beach, married and had four children.
Her husband worked as a mechanic and liked to hunt in his spare time, and Jones said the couple were both very active and healthy during the first 20 years of their working lives.
However, in 1992 Roy was injured in a workplace accident and then in a car accident. He was permanently disabled, was unable to return to work, and received income from Social Security Disability Insurance. He underwent multiple major surgeries and took a variety of medications, some of which he paid for out of pocket.
Jones was the family’s sole breadwinner, and she said her employer was flexible when she had to care for her husband. She received bonuses, one of which she used as a down payment on a new house. She said she made $70,000 to $90,000 a year, including bonuses, in the 1990s and early 2000s.
Still, she and her husband worried about how to make ends meet, and although they always had food when their children were teenagers, they sometimes resorted to ramen noodles and mac and cheese.
After her children went to college or left home, she felt secure about their financial situation: 401(k) plans, insurance, mortgages and other financial situations were “very stable.” Her children, now ages 43 to 51, went to college on full scholarships or with help from their grandparents.
“We thought that our lives would slowly get easier as our kids were all moving out, getting married, and going to college,” Jones said, “but that didn’t happen.”
A dire diagnosis
In the mid-2000s, Jones began having problems with her eyesight and concentration, sometimes passing out at her desk or spacing out for minutes. She was diagnosed with a brain tumor and said her insurance copayments weren’t a “terrible burden.” But 11 months after her first surgery, she started getting severe migraines again that “felt like a sword was going through my head” and she had to take more medication.
After working on and off between appointments for three years, she was forced to quit her job and get disability certificate. She says she was lucky to be approved on the first try, but it usually takes six to eight months for an initial decision to be made after months of collecting paperwork.
“For some reason I thought it was going to be the same as what I make, but it was actually two-thirds of what I make, so it was a huge cut,” Jones said. “My insurance didn’t cover a lot, so I had to dip into my savings. My 401(k) went dry quickly. I have really good health insurance, but apparently no insurance covers everything.”
She also had to wait two years to qualify for Medicare after being approved for SSDI, which meant paying $500 out of pocket each month for one medication. She spent hours on the phone trying to get affordable insulin for her diabetic husband, and a lawyer from her former company helped her get additional assistance. During this time, they had to declare bankruptcy.
“If you don’t have an education and you don’t speak English, there’s no way you could get this kind of help,” Jones said. “I struggle with the paperwork and applications. I don’t know why people do that. A lot of times people my age don’t know how to use a computer.”
She said preparing for unexpected medical expenses from the various cancers she has been diagnosed with over the past 20 years may be the hardest part of managing her finances: Recently, she used her insurance to cover multiple ambulance charges, totaling $900.
Recently, they received a letter saying their Medicare premiums were no longer covered in the state of Florida. She thinks it’s because she put the money her mother gave her before she died into a savings account to pay for her house and car this year. She receives $2,200 a month from Social Security and her husband receives about $1,000, but cooking is hard and they can’t afford meat, so they have to buy frozen main dishes and vegetables. They also downsized to just one car to save money.
I can manage somehow
Jones said that while her credit is good now, a few years ago she would get multiple calls from bill collectors every day, and she lives a much more frugal life now than she did a few years ago.
Though the cost of living in Palm Beach has skyrocketed in recent years, they were still able to keep their “very small” home. They took out a reverse mortgage, which allows older homeowners to pay off some of the equity in their home tax-free. Jones says it was their only option to hang on to the house. She estimates their mortgage was $1,500 to $2,000 a month. They couldn’t afford to fix the sprinkler system, and when a pipe burst, they paid nearly $1,200.
She said it’s “horrible” to have to pay auto insurance, property taxes and homeowners insurance in the same month. Homeowners insurance is $4,000 a year, property taxes are about $2,000 and auto insurance is $1,900.
“Everyone has encouraged us to move, but we’ve been here for 35 years,” Jones said. “It would cost a lot of money to move, along with emotional and social support.”
Jones has a part-time, minimum wage job at an avian clinic, one of the few jobs she can afford given her health. She earns up to $300 a month, which she says is convenient. She knows she could get extra help if she quit her job, but she says she would rather work for her own income and buy discounted food for the birds she keeps at home.
“It’s a dilemma. Everyone says just get a job, and I’ve tried to do that, but it’s taken everything else away from me,” Jones said, noting that she would work as long as she could drive, walk and answer the phone. “I wasn’t getting ahead. I wasn’t saving, I wasn’t making any progress.”
Her children have helped fund her vacations so she could attend her mother’s memorial in the Outer Banks and trips to Alaska, and they give them financial advice and check in frequently to see how they’re doing.
Jones said she is taking each day as she goes, after receiving worrying news from her oncologist at their last appointment. Her goal going forward is to make sure her husband is clear about his struggles with depression and pain, she said.
“We’re trying to find a way to be comfortable without making other people feel uncomfortable,” Jones said.
Worried about retirement? Contact this reporter nsheid lower@businessinsider.com.