At 83 she almost definitely qualified for Medicaid, so she did have health insurance. However many health insurance plans have limits and high deductibles or disqualified expenses that can send a low income person bankrupt anyway. Quick quiz, which treatments for ovarian cancer would your plan cover and what are the deductibles? How does that compare to a plan you could buy on the individual market as an 83 year old woman?
If she wasn't paying payroll taxes, that would be the fault of the employer who is supposed to deduct them, and where she had worked for 25 years, no? There is no minimum income you have to pay it on as far as I am aware.
If you're living paycheck to paycheck, planning for retirement isn't on your list of high priorities. Paying your rent, and buying food is, and those little unexpected expenses like new tires hit hard.
It's great that you're fortunate enough to have enough income to be able to plan for retirement at 25.
