Aging

Like all seniors, LGBT elders face a number of concerns as they age.

Existing regulations and proposed policy changes in programs like Social Security or Medicare, which impact millions of LGBT elders, are discussed without a LGBT voice involved in the debate.

Several federal programs and laws fail to recognize same-sex couples, widening the gap between heterosexual and same-sex couples. For example:

• Social Security pays survivor benefits to widows and widowers, but not to the surviving same-sex life partner of someone who dies. This deprives LGBT elders of $124 million a year in unaccessed benefits.
  
• Married spouses are eligible for Social Security spousal benefits, which can allow them to earn half their spouse's Social Security benefit if it is larger than their own Social Security benefit. Unmarried partners in life-long relationships are not eligible for spousal benefits.
  
• Medicaid regulations protect the assets and homes of married spouses when the other spouse enters a nursing home or long-term care facility; no such protections are offered to same-sex partners.
  
• Tax laws and other regulations of 401(k)s and pensions discriminate against same-sex partners, costing the surviving partner in a same-sex relationship tens of thousands of dollars a year, and possibly over $1 million during the course of a lifetime.
  
• And even the most basic rights such as hospital visitation or the right to die in the same nursing home are regularly denied same-sex partners.