City of San Diego Retired Employees Association
May 14, 2019
General Meeting Minutes
The minutes for the April 2019 meeting were approved. (There was NOT a meeting in June)
Cynthia Queen announced that the COLA was approved by the SDCERS Board. She informed members that there are no changes to health care providers this year and that the two annual health care events are on May 24 and June 14. Finally, she introduced Jessica Maloney who is replacing Jessica Packard as Director of Communications.
Vice-President for Programs Dave Twomey thanked Alyse Ford and Jodie Monteleone for their service as part of the Lunch Bunch; they and fellow alum Tom Peña will be treated to this year’s holiday party. He also invited members to be part of the Lunch Bunch: it’s set-up, laying out the catered lunch, and clean-up, with no heavy lifting. And a free lunch! Members (or non-members) should contact Dave at [email protected] to volunteer.
PROGRAM
The program was Amy Abrams, Director of Education at Alzheimer’s San Diego, who spoke about long-term care. No surprise – it’s very expensive, running around $25/hour for in-home non-medical care. Independent living communities are exactly that: they provide no health care. Insurance will cover recovery stays at facilities, but not in-home care. Medi-Cal and the VA have some limited benefits to supplement Medicare. Abrams advised members to prepare documents to describe what we consider quality of life so that providers and family members know exactly what we want as we grow older, and to keep this and other legal documents (ie, power of attorney, advance health care directive) up to date. Finally, she advised members to get a memory screening annually; she stressed that simply getting the screening will not trigger a notification to the DMV.