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Featured Resident
Donna McGrath
Tumelo Galefele Gobagoba-Kwapa
Intern, Midwest Geriatrics, Inc.
“Just How Secure is Social Security?”
Like so many other questions, the answer depends on who you ask. If you’re talking with Donna McGrath, a 77-year old living in Omaha, Nebraska; she’ll tell you we’re good to go until 2041; that is… if the government doesn’t tap into it for something else. A volunteer for the Nebraska Alliance for Retired Americans, McGrath is passionate about the topic and the organization’s mission: to ensure social and economic justice and full civil rights for all citizens so that they may enjoy lives of dignity, personal and family fulfillment, and security.
Having worked with the organization for six years, her responsibilities include contacting retirees, local unions, and community organizations to explain the legislative process that goes on in Washington on behalf of senior citizens. She explains both the good and the bad about the whole process and the threat this poses today and even in the future. “The challenge is getting people interested… getting people to know the dangers of privatizing Social Security; thus privatizing the two programs that fall under it: Medicare and Medicaid,” she said.
Having worked in Washington at a young age, Donna values her experience there. She hopes that people could learn to think not just about themselves but also about their future. She continues to say that congress can be held accountable by senior citizens through voting and making sure their choices are people that care for senior citizens and not those that treat and consider senior citizens as second and third class citizens.
"This is the first time in the history of the country that our children will have less than the previous generations...
It's a very critical time whether we realize it or not."
She believes that the way to prepare for our aging population is to think of them but also the entire population as a whole… suggesting national health care insurance. “Germany has a one-payer system,” she said.
“And they don’t have a max on how much people pay. They have a good system just as we do.”
“There has got to be hope for seniors…” hope brought about by change. For her role in all this; Donna says her German background has gotten her this far… She’s determined it will take her the rest of the way… if not for her for her 16 grandchildren. “This is the first time in the history of the country that our children will have less than the previous generations… It’s a very critical time whether we realize it or not,” she said.
“Therefore, we must send the right people to Washington… If that happens, I think the benefits they have now will stay and be improved.”
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