Elderly immigrants from post-Soviet countries feel very well in American realities
On the other end of America, in the more prosperous state of Massachusetts, no one even thinks of encroaching on social centers for elderly immigrants. Life there is bustling.
The American authorities are generally extremely humane towards elderly people, and some peculiarities of the lives of grandparents who immigrated from post-Soviet countries are simply surprising. For example, the laws of Massachusetts allow an elderly person who has come to live with their children to immediately apply for «Medicaid» health insurance and a place on the waiting list for housing.
Having received a material allowance of $400 to $800 and free health insurance, the elderly immigrant, after waiting a year in several housing queues simultaneously, moves into a two-room apartment in a social housing building. The rent is small – only 10% of the real cost of housing rental.
Free «Medicaid» health insurance allows immigrants to use medical consultations, medications, and, if necessary, hospitalization. Upon retiring at age 65, American citizens receive «Medicare» – a health insurance for the elderly, which surpasses free health insurance programs in quality and coverage. Residents of Massachusetts receive «Medicare» at age 62. By simultaneously using the opportunities of the «Medicaid» and «Medicare» insurance programs, an elderly immigrant who has obtained citizenship even evokes envy among native-born American retirees with low incomes and pensions.
These feelings of American citizens towards elderly Russian-speaking immigrants are exacerbated by the system of their social and medical care, invented by fellow businessmen 10 years ago in New York. They proved with numbers and dollars in hand that people from the Soviet Union feel more comfortable in a group of fellow Soviet immigrants. Communication reduced the number of diseases whose treatment required state insurance money, and daily individual medical care for retirees under the insurance program was significantly more expensive when doctors visited each address. Thus appeared health social centers – «kindergartens», as the retirees themselves call them.
The cultural and health center «Lynn Zabota» is located in a small ocean town Lynn, a suburb of Boston. Retirees are delivered here on special buses. They pick up each one and bring them to the center. Approximately $150 per person daily is spent on medical monitoring of the elderly, physiotherapy procedures, social worker assistance, dietary breakfast and lunch. «The joy of communication will help you forget about age and diseases, realize yourself and make your life brighter and more interesting» – so it is written in the center's promotional materials inviting retirees to join.
The medical service program at the center is individual for each retiree and adjusted according to the recommendations of the attending physician. For six years, this health center has been providing comprehensive support to elderly Russian-speaking people. Free English lessons, guaranteed preparation and assistance in passing the citizenship exam, Russian television and amateur arts activities are supplemented with Sunday tourist trips to the «witch city» Salem, the «singing beach» of Manchester and the lobster town Gloucester.
It is hard to imagine, but here they even sew costumes for the elderly to participate in amateur concerts (dedicated to both Russian and numerous American holidays), and KVN games, and model contests. «We live in communism» – this is how elderly patients evaluate the work of the center's volunteers.
Vladimir Mashatin.
Novye Izvestiya