The Smoke and Mirrors of Health Care Reform for the Elderly
I’m deeply concerned that the American public, in particular our nation’s elders, will be relying on our government to provide long term care solutions they’ll by no means see. They’ll only see the “smoke and mirrors” of Wellness Care Reform.
Our nation’s seniors are the most vulnerable segment of the U.S. population vulnerable each overall health smart and financially. Phlebotomy discovering the savings they believed would be adequate is not enough. They’re silently fearful of running out of funds with no 1 to care for them as they turn into additional frail. The silence is about to grow to be deafening.
Regrettably, when Wellness Care Reform proudly announced New Extended Term Care Solutions, it discouraged a lot of American’s from purchasing Long Term Care Insurance coverage.
The New York Occasions reported on ‘Options Expand for Economical Long-Term Care’ THE NEW OLD AGE. The Associated Press announced ‘New Wellness Care Law Has Advantages for Seniors’. Point getting, the casual reader was relieved to hear their government will “take care of them” when they require lengthy term care services. We now know that is not about to happen.
Thankfully our representatives in Washington discovered that Wellness Care Reforms answer to the issue of Long 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 “lengthy term care” system would have been counted as “deficit reduction”. The long term care added benefits it was intended to finance have been assumed not to materialize in the initial 10 years. Having said that, that money was not accounted for anyplace in the legislation.
The new legislation proposed to “trim” $463 billion from Medicare. But Medicare is at the moment obtaining problems balancing its books nowadays. Yet, why does the well being care bill inform us Medicare can operate more cheaply going forward without 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 focus. Now what?
Projections show that the federal deficit is anticipated to exceed $700 billion annually over the next decade. This primarily will double the national and $900 billion represents interest on earlier debt. Would the CFO of any key corporation in the United States allow the enterprise he worked for to end up in this type of economic position? Completely not.
Our officials in Congress have been elected to safeguard the finest interests of the American persons. “Robbing Peter to spend Paul”, and when again printing a lot more currency, has come to be 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 can not continue to mismanage its financial future. Future Congresses will have to provide a multitude of future reforms and, regrettably, history tells us THAT will never ever come about. Proposals for financing wellness reform had been based on a lot more “smoke and mirrors”. The “Cadillac” tax is scheduled to start in 2018.
The overall health care legislation that has been forced on every single and each and every one particular of us is recognized to be fiscally unsound. Exactly where do we go from here? It’s also quick to point the finger at the President and his administration. Yet Congress owns the responsibility of passing Health Care Legislation. And THAT is the trouble.
The 535 voting members of Congress shared the responsibility equally. If one clear considering, intelligent, honorable Congressman had the entire duty for Health Care Reform, he or she would not have forced a fiscally unsound Overall health Care Reform Bill down our throats.
Now let’s again evaluate how Overall health Care Reform will perform against our senior citizens.
A most current government report identified that in 2000 there had been 1.8 million offered nursing home beds. As the year 2010 came to a close, there had been 1.7 million nursing property beds a net 5 % reduction in accessible beds. And, there are no new nursing houses being constructed.
Today there is less than 1.five million Americans confined to nursing residences. Reportedly ten percent of these nursing properties are operating under bankruptcy protection. It’s nicely known that most of these facilities are understaffed and numerous never have competent help.
Subsequent, let’s take into consideration that the Alzheimer’s Association tells us the likelihood of building Alzheimer’s following age 85 is 50 percent. By 2030, they tell us that the number of people today age 65 and older with Alzheimer’s disease is estimated to reach 7.7 million, a 50 % boost from the five.two million age 65 and older at the moment affected.
The logical question I need to ask is “if we can not take adequate care of 1.5 million people today right now, how can we possibly take care of 7.7 million people in 2030?” We can not. More basically 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 household, please consider again. 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 solutions? Where’s the outcry? Regrettably our political leaders only align themselves with solvable problems.
America’s seniors became more hopeful reading that Well being Reform will assist them with added Lengthy Term Care services. And we now know THAT is not going to occur. There are no plans in place to assistance our nation’s seniors consider they will obtain the comfort and dignity of sufficient extended term care solutions. What is worse is the silence shared by all our political leaders. The silence is now deafening.
