Health Care and Retirement Expenses Stress American Women: Survey

Financial Insecurity

For the second year in a row, survey participants reported substantial economic stress. The survey found that 49% of women and only a third of rural women had saved for retirement.

Majorities of respondents described themselves as financially insecure, including 79% of low-income women and 67% of rural women. Low-income white and Hispanic women said their financial security was worse this year than last.

Seven in 10 low-income women said they are not confident about their ability to plan and save for retirement.

Roughly a third of all women and half of low-income women said their retirement income or savings will not be enough to pay their monthly bills — an increase from 2023, according to NCOA and WISER.

Support for Policy Solutions

The survey asked female respondents to express their level of support for potential policy solutions, understanding that these would likely have a cost associated with them and may require new federal government spending or reductions in spending on other federal programs. 

The results showed that large majorities of women support the solutions, across party and demographic lines.

Four proposals would expand and improve Medicare coverage: 

• So beneficiaries have access to the full range of care and treatments for serious chronic diseases;
• To better ensure that older adults have the option to receive care at home rather than in a nursing home;
• Add health promotion and disease prevention programs; 
• Strengthen Medicare efforts to help low-income older adults sign up for benefits they are eligible for but are not currently receiving.

Respondents also strongly support several non-Medicare proposals. One would provide a tax break to family caregivers to help cover out-of-pocket costs of care for a seriously ill, disabled or elderly family member.

Another would update the federal Supplemental Security Income program. A third would provide government assistance to lower-income older adults to pay for basic needs.

Yet another proposal would address elder care and disability care workforce shortages by ensuring that home care workers receive a lwage of $18 to $20 per hour, along with health insurance and retirement and other employment benefits.

"The survey points to ways we can change women's retirement prospects," WISER's president, Cindy Hounsell, said in the statement. "Clearly, we must begin to make the future more secure for women of all ages and incomes."