Report From State Rep. Vitali's Senior Meeting

State Representative Greg Vitali sponsored a Senior Meeting last Friday, Oct. 7, 2011, at the Marple Library. About 100 seniors attended the event to listen to representatives from the Delaware County Office of Services of the Aging (COSA), the Social Security Administration, and APPRISE.

APPRISE is a publicly-funded program that helps Medicare beneficiaries understand the Medicare health choice options available to them, including choosing the best Medigap Policy. 

Marie Bonita of the COSA started the meeting, followed by Edward Lafferty of the Social Security Administration, and then Kim Andrews from APPRISE. Light refreshments were served and tables in the rear carried information about local senior resources. 

Seniors, this was a meeting you did not want to miss, so place it in your calendar for next year. Each speaker at the event had enough information to make the trip worthwhile. Marie Bonita touched upon some of the most valuable resources available to DELCO Seniors, and gave attendees a list of telephone numbers to call for more information.

Edward Lafferty explained how to navigate through the Social Security web-site for information about benefits under both Social Security and Medicare.  Kim Andrews proved once again that she is one of the most knowledgeable individuals in the state on the topic of Medicare and Medicare Supplemental plans.

Delaware County is very lucky to have Kim Andrews on board, it is well known among Elder Practitioners that Delaware County has some of the best APPRISE counsellors in the state. 

The questions by members of the audience at the end of the presentation were as interesting and informative as the presentation itself. I hope to cover some of those issues in future blogs.

Representative Vitali gave a video interview which can be found to the right of this article. He stated during the interview that the meetings are important to help seniors better understand the often complicated issues surrounding Medicare and Social Security, as well as to make sure seniors are fully aware of the resources available to them from the Commonwealth. 

This article is also accompanied by some photos of the event. Thanks to Diana of Rep. Vitali's office for assisting in the production. There is some background noise in the video because, quite frankly, the auditorium was filled and many stayed after the presentation to obtain more information.

Stay well until the next post. 

Bob

Bob Gasparro is an Elder Practitioner (accountant and attorney). He welcomes questions or comments from readers in the space below, and ideas about future blog posts. He can be reached at robert.gasparro@lifespanlegal.com.

Download the movie