I’m deeply concerned that the American public, specially our nation’s elders, will be relying on our government to supply long term care services they will never 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 wise and financially. Health Product Reviews are silently discovering the savings they believed 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 much more frail. The silence is about to turn into deafening.
Regrettably, when Wellness Care Reform proudly announced New Extended Term Care Services, it discouraged lots of American’s from getting Lengthy Term Care Insurance.
The New York Times reported on ‘Options Expand for Economical Long-Term Care’ THE NEW OLD AGE. The Related Press announced ‘New Well being Care Law Has Rewards for Seniors’. Point being, the casual reader was relieved to hear their government will “take care of them” when they require long term care services. We now know that is not about to take place.
Luckily our representatives in Washington found that Well being Care Reforms answer to the problem of Extended Term Care, “CLASS”, (Community 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” plan would have been counted as “deficit reduction”. The extended term care rewards it was intended to finance had been assumed not to materialize in the initial ten years. Even so, that dollars was not accounted for anywhere in the legislation.
The new legislation proposed to “trim” $463 billion from Medicare. Yet Medicare is presently having trouble balancing its books right now. However, why does the overall health care bill inform us Medicare can operate additional cheaply going forward without having the accompanying reforms?
Our national media gave massive fanfare to the CLASS ACT when it passed. Sadly the media has provided the CLASS ACT’s demise little attention. Now what?
Projections show that the federal deficit is expected to exceed $700 billion annually more than the next decade. This primarily will double the national and $900 billion represents interest on preceding debt. Would the CFO of any main corporation in the United States permit the company he worked for to end up in this form of monetary position? Certainly not.
Our officials in Congress have been elected to safeguard the best interests of the American individuals. “Robbing Peter to spend Paul”, and after once again printing extra currency, has come to be our government’s mantra for the future. Yet 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 monetary future. Future Congresses will have to provide a multitude of future reforms and, regrettably, history tells us THAT will by no means occur. Proposals for financing wellness reform were primarily based on far more “smoke and mirrors”. The “Cadillac” tax is scheduled to begin in 2018.
The well being care legislation that has been forced on every and every one particular of us is recognized to be fiscally unsound. Exactly where do we go from here? It really is as well effortless to point the finger at the President and his administration. But Congress owns the responsibility of passing Well being Care Legislation. And THAT is the dilemma.
The 535 voting members of Congress shared the responsibility equally. If a single clear thinking, intelligent, honorable Congressman had the entire responsibility for Overall health Care Reform, he or she would not have forced a fiscally unsound Overall health Care Reform Bill down our throats.
Now let’s once more evaluate how Well being Care Reform will operate against our senior citizens.
A most current government report identified that in 2000 there had been 1.eight million obtainable nursing property beds. As the year 2010 came to a close, there had been 1.7 million nursing home beds a net five % reduction in available beds. And, there are no new nursing residences being built.
Nowadays there is much less than 1.five million Americans confined to nursing homes. Reportedly ten % of these nursing properties are operating beneath bankruptcy protection. It is nicely recognized that most of these facilities are understaffed and many never have competent assist.
Subsequent, let’s consider that the Alzheimer’s Association tells us the likelihood of creating Alzheimer’s after age 85 is 50 percent. By 2030, they inform us that the quantity of men and women age 65 and older with Alzheimer’s illness is estimated to reach 7.7 million, a 50 percent increase from the 5.2 million age 65 and older at the moment affected.
The logical query I should ask is “if we cannot take sufficient care of 1.five million persons today, how can we possibly take care of 7.7 million people in 2030?” We can not. More basically put, 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 dwelling, please assume once again. Ask any caregiver who’s been by means of it. It’s Guaranteed to destroy any families’ peace of mind and harmony.
Why are not our political leaders actively working on options? Where’s the outcry? Regrettably our political leaders only align themselves with solvable troubles.
America’s seniors became a lot more hopeful reading that Overall health Reform will assist them with added Long Term Care services. And we now know THAT is not going to happen. There are no plans in spot to help our nation’s seniors feel they will receive the comfort and dignity of adequate long term care solutions. What is worse is the silence shared by all our political leaders. The silence is now deafening.