Write a reflection essay about what roles the federal government play on senior citizens lives... this essay is for a service learning activity that I did. I choose to volunteer at north Miami...

Joseph2
Erlanda Joseph
Professor Tapia
POS2041
3 December 2018
Thesis statement: The government play a role in senior citizen lives by providing healthcare, funding nonprofit organizations and building social security.
The lives of senior citizens are affected by many local, state and federal rules and regulations. They depend on the government for basic amenities like basic income & employment, housing, food & nutrition and healthcare. Under the federal survivor, old-age and disability insurance more than 25 million Americans avail the benefits. The total payment for this amounts to approximately $20 billion in a year. Citizens above the age of sixty-five or more are eligible for full benefit payment. They qualify for this by either having made a contribution to Social Security or by being employed for the mandatory minimum duration of time. According to the statistics given by the U.S. government, the number of number of senior citizen will be 16.9% of the total population by the end of 2020. This number keeps on increasing with time.So the government should continuously keep on analyzing and updating the rules and regulations to make provision for this chuck of the population.
Expenses like property tax, mortgages, utilities and many other expenses are bearable while one is having a source of income. But when the income stops, these expenses at times become overwhelming to pay. The federal government has taken few steps to ease this problem for the senior citizens. With the help of the Housing and Urban Development Department, they have tried to make housing affordable through multiple ways like housing vouchers, public housing, and multifamily subsidized housing. They have also provided relief for home repair help, utility bills, property tax program and weatherization assistance for the home in extreme climates. There are also many retirement communities budding. Earlier they were built in areas that had warm climatic conditions but now are coming up in and around many major cities throughout the U.S. The communities are popular in California, Texas, Florida and Arizona. These communities allow senior citizens to rent or buy housing. These are affordable to financially secure people. There are very few housing communities for people with low income except for government-subsidized housing. This results in a larger population of older citizens with low income being neglected.
The government also enforces healthcare. One of the factors of healthcare that the government provides for senior citizens is Medicare. It is health insurance by federal insurance for younger people with disabilities and people over 65 years of age. It was created in 1965 when individuals 65 years old were having a hard time receiving private medical insurance. Medicare is divided into two parts. One is a supplementary medical necessary treatment program(SMNTP) and the other one is a hospital insurance program(HIP). The...