The Smoke and Mirrors of Overall health Care Reform for the Elderly
I’m deeply concerned that the American public, especially our nation’s elders, will be relying on our government to deliver lengthy term care solutions they will by no means see. They’ll only see the “smoke and mirrors” of Well being Care Reform.
Our nation’s seniors are the most vulnerable segment of the U.S. population vulnerable both overall health smart and financially. They’re silently discovering the savings they thought would be adequate is not adequate. They’re silently fearful of running out of dollars with no one particular to care for them as they turn out to be much more frail. The silence is about to become deafening.
Regrettably, when Health Care Reform proudly announced New Long Term Care Solutions, it discouraged a lot of American’s from purchasing Long Term Care Insurance coverage.
The New York Instances reported on ‘Options Expand for Inexpensive Lengthy-Term Care’ THE NEW OLD AGE. The Related Press announced ‘New Overall health Care Law Has Positive aspects for Seniors’. Point being, the casual reader was relieved to hear their government will “take care of them” when they need lengthy term care solutions. We now know that is not about to take place.
Thankfully our representatives in Washington discovered that Overall health Care Reforms answer to the trouble of Extended Term Care, “CLASS”, (Neighborhood Living Assistance Solutions and Supports Act) legislation would have been fiscally unsound. $70 billion in premiums that was expected to be raised for the new “lengthy term care” system would have been counted as “deficit reduction”. The long term care advantages it was intended to finance were assumed not to materialize in the first 10 years. On the other hand, that dollars was not accounted for anywhere in the legislation.
The new legislation proposed to “trim” $463 billion from Medicare. However Medicare is currently possessing difficulty balancing its books today. However, why does the health care bill inform us Medicare can operate extra cheaply going forward devoid of the accompanying reforms?
Our national media gave huge fanfare to the CLASS ACT when it passed. Unfortunately the media has given the CLASS ACT’s demise little interest. Now what?
Projections show that the federal deficit is anticipated to exceed $700 billion annually more than the next decade. This essentially will double the national and $900 billion represents interest on earlier debt. Would the CFO of any big corporation in the United States permit the firm he worked for to end up in this form of economic position? The role of physicians in prescribing regulated drugs not.
Our officials in Congress have been elected to defend the very best interests of the American men and women. “Robbing Peter to spend Paul”, and when once more printing much more currency, has become our government’s mantra for the future. But the magnitude of the mismanagement of America’s purse strings has now reached an unconscionable state.
The United States of America cannot continue to mismanage its economic future. Future Congresses will have to deliver a multitude of future reforms and, regrettably, history tells us THAT will by no means come about. Proposals for financing wellness reform were based on far more “smoke and mirrors”. The “Cadillac” tax is scheduled to start in 2018.
The wellness care legislation that has been forced on every and every single one particular of us is recognized to be fiscally unsound. Exactly where do we go from right here? It’s also easy to point the finger at the President and his administration. Yet Congress owns the duty of passing Overall health Care Legislation. And THAT is the problem.
The 535 voting members of Congress shared the responsibility equally. If one clear pondering, intelligent, honorable Congressman had the complete responsibility for Overall health Care Reform, he or she would not have forced a fiscally unsound Wellness Care Reform Bill down our throats.
Now let’s once more evaluate how Well being Care Reform will function against our senior citizens.
A most current government report identified that in 2000 there had been 1.eight million offered nursing home beds. As the year 2010 came to a close, there were 1.7 million nursing house beds a net 5 % reduction in accessible beds. And, there are no new nursing residences getting constructed.
Now there is significantly less than 1.5 million Americans confined to nursing homes. Reportedly ten percent of these nursing residences are operating beneath bankruptcy protection. It is effectively known that most of these facilities are understaffed and several never have competent support.
Next, let’s think about that the Alzheimer’s Association tells us the likelihood of developing Alzheimer’s after age 85 is 50 %. By 2030, they tell us that the number of folks age 65 and older with Alzheimer’s disease is estimated to attain 7.7 million, a 50 percent increase from the five.2 million age 65 and older presently affected.
The logical query I ought to ask is “if we cannot take adequate care of 1.5 million persons today, how can we possibly take care of 7.7 million individuals in 2030?” We can’t. A lot more just place, when you or your spouse or your parent has Alzheimer’s, there is no place for them to go. Not to be cruel, but if you ever assume for a moment about taking in an aged parent with Alzheimer’s into your property, please believe once more. Ask any caregiver who’s been by means of it. It really is Guaranteed to destroy any families’ peace of thoughts and harmony.
Why are not our political leaders actively functioning on options? Where’s the outcry? Regrettably our political leaders only align themselves with solvable complications.
America’s seniors became far more hopeful reading that Overall health Reform will help them with added Lengthy Term Care services. And we now know THAT is not going to take place. There are no plans in place to aid our nation’s seniors consider they’ll obtain the comfort and dignity of sufficient lengthy term care solutions. What’s worse is the silence shared by all our political leaders. The silence is now deafening.