The Smoke and Mirrors of Overall health Care Reform for the Elderly
I am deeply concerned that the American public, especially our nation’s elders, will be relying on our government to give long term care solutions they’ll in no way see. They’ll only see the “smoke and mirrors” of Health Care Reform.
Our nation’s seniors are the most vulnerable segment of the U.S. population vulnerable each well being sensible and financially. They are silently discovering the savings they thought would be sufficient is not enough. They are silently fearful of operating out of money with no one to care for them as they become additional frail. The silence is about to turn into deafening.
Regrettably, when Overall health Care Reform proudly announced New Extended Term Care Services, it discouraged lots of American’s from buying Lengthy Term Care Insurance coverage.
The New York Occasions reported on ‘Options Expand for Affordable Long-Term Care’ THE NEW OLD AGE. The Associated Press announced ‘New Well being Care Law Has Rewards for Seniors’. Point getting, the casual reader was relieved to hear their government will “take care of them” when they will need long term care services. We now know that is not about to happen.
Luckily our representatives in Washington discovered that Well being Care Reforms answer to the trouble of Extended Term Care, “CLASS”, (Neighborhood Living Assistance Services and Supports Act) legislation would have been fiscally unsound. $70 billion in premiums that was expected to be raised for the new “extended term care” system would have been counted as “deficit reduction”. The extended term care positive aspects it was intended to finance were assumed not to materialize in the initially 10 years. Nonetheless, that funds was not accounted for anywhere in the legislation.
The new legislation proposed to “trim” $463 billion from Medicare. However Medicare is currently possessing trouble balancing its books these days. Yet, why does the wellness care bill tell us Medicare can operate much more cheaply going forward without having the accompanying reforms?
Our national media gave enormous fanfare to the CLASS ACT when it passed. Unfortunately the media has offered the CLASS ACT’s demise little focus. Now what?
live in companion show that the federal deficit is expected to exceed $700 billion annually more than the next decade. This basically will double the national and $900 billion represents interest on earlier debt. Would the CFO of any big corporation in the United States allow the enterprise he worked for to end up in this sort of monetary position? Certainly not.
Our officials in Congress have been elected to safeguard the most effective interests of the American folks. “Robbing Peter to spend Paul”, and as soon as once more printing far more currency, has turn into our government’s mantra for the future. However the magnitude of the mismanagement of America’s purse strings has now reached an unconscionable state.
The United States of America can’t continue to mismanage its financial future. Future Congresses will have to provide a multitude of future reforms and, regrettably, history tells us THAT will by no means happen. Proposals for financing overall health reform have been primarily based on much more “smoke and mirrors”. The “Cadillac” tax is scheduled to commence in 2018.
The well being care legislation that has been forced on every single and just about every a single of us is known to be fiscally unsound. Exactly where do we go from right here? It is as well uncomplicated to point the finger at the President and his administration. However Congress owns the duty of passing Well being Care Legislation. And THAT is the issue.
The 535 voting members of Congress shared the duty equally. If a single clear pondering, intelligent, honorable Congressman had the whole duty for Wellness Care Reform, he or she would not have forced a fiscally unsound Health Care Reform Bill down our throats.
Now let’s again evaluate how Wellness Care Reform will work against our senior citizens.
A most current government report identified that in 2000 there have been 1.8 million accessible nursing residence beds. As the year 2010 came to a close, there were 1.7 million nursing residence beds a net five % reduction in obtainable beds. And, there are no new nursing homes becoming built.
Right now there’s much less than 1.5 million Americans confined to nursing residences. Reportedly 10 % of these nursing homes are operating under bankruptcy protection. It’s well recognized that most of these facilities are understaffed and quite a few don’t have competent aid.
Subsequent, let’s take into consideration that the Alzheimer’s Association tells us the likelihood of developing Alzheimer’s just after age 85 is 50 %. By 2030, they inform us that the quantity of persons age 65 and older with Alzheimer’s disease is estimated to reach 7.7 million, a 50 percent boost from the five.two million age 65 and older presently impacted.
The logical question I need to ask is “if we cannot take sufficient care of 1.5 million persons right now, how can we possibly take care of 7.7 million people today in 2030?” We cannot. A lot more simply put, when you or your spouse or your parent has Alzheimer’s, there is no location for them to go. Not to be cruel, but if you ever feel for a moment about taking in an aged parent with Alzheimer’s into your residence, please consider once more. Ask any caregiver who’s been through it. It’s Assured to destroy any families’ peace of thoughts and harmony.
Why aren’t our political leaders actively functioning on options? Where’s the outcry? Regrettably our political leaders only align themselves with solvable troubles.
America’s seniors became extra hopeful reading that Wellness Reform will support them with added Extended Term Care services. And we now know THAT is not going to take place. There are no plans in location to assist our nation’s seniors assume they’ll get the comfort and dignity of adequate extended term care services. What’s worse is the silence shared by all our political leaders. The silence is now deafening.