I am deeply concerned that the American public, in particular our nation’s elders, will be relying on our government to provide lengthy term care services they will 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 both well being wise and financially. They are silently discovering the savings they believed would be sufficient is not sufficient. They are silently fearful of operating out of cash with no one to care for them as they become far more frail. The silence is about to turn into deafening.
Regrettably, when Overall health Care Reform proudly announced New Extended Term Care Services, it discouraged several American’s from purchasing Extended Term Care Insurance.
The New York Times reported on ‘Options Expand for Inexpensive Extended-Term Care’ THE NEW OLD AGE. The Linked Press announced ‘New Well being Care Law Has Advantages for Seniors’. Point getting, the casual reader was relieved to hear their government will “take care of them” when they have to have extended term care services. We now know that is not about to occur.
Thankfully our representatives in Washington found that Well being Care Reforms answer to the problem of Extended Term Care, “CLASS”, (Neighborhood Living Help Solutions and Supports Act) legislation would have been fiscally unsound. $70 billion in premiums that was anticipated to be raised for the new “extended term care” program would have been counted as “deficit reduction”. The extended term care rewards it was intended to finance were assumed not to materialize in the initial 10 years. However, that cash was not accounted for anyplace in the legislation.
The new legislation proposed to “trim” $463 billion from Medicare. However Medicare is at present getting trouble balancing its books now. However, why does the wellness care bill tell us Medicare can operate far more cheaply going forward without the accompanying reforms?
Our national media gave massive fanfare to the CLASS ACT when it passed. Regrettably the media has provided the CLASS ACT’s demise tiny attention. Now what?
Projections show that the federal deficit is anticipated to exceed $700 billion annually more than the next decade. yoursite.com will double the national and $900 billion represents interest on earlier debt. Would the CFO of any major corporation in the United States permit the enterprise he worked for to end up in this sort of economic position? Absolutely not.
Our officials in Congress have been elected to protect the most effective interests of the American people. “Robbing Peter to pay Paul”, and once once more printing extra currency, has turn out to be 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 economic future. Future Congresses will have to deliver a multitude of future reforms and, regrettably, history tells us THAT will by no means happen. Proposals for financing health reform had been based on additional “smoke and mirrors”. The “Cadillac” tax is scheduled to begin in 2018.
The wellness care legislation that has been forced on every and each and every 1 of us is known to be fiscally unsound. Exactly where do we go from right here? It really is too simple to point the finger at the President and his administration. Yet Congress owns the duty 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 Well being 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 Wellness Care Reform will operate against our senior citizens.
A most current government report identified that in 2000 there have been 1.8 million out there nursing house beds. As the year 2010 came to a close, there had been 1.7 million nursing property beds a net five % reduction in offered beds. And, there are no new nursing residences getting built.
Today there’s significantly less than 1.5 million Americans confined to nursing residences. Reportedly 10 % of these nursing houses are operating below bankruptcy protection. It’s nicely known that most of these facilities are understaffed and many do not have competent aid.
Next, let’s think about that the Alzheimer’s Association tells us the likelihood of creating Alzheimer’s just after age 85 is 50 %. By 2030, they tell us that the number of persons age 65 and older with Alzheimer’s disease is estimated to attain 7.7 million, a 50 % increase from the 5.2 million age 65 and older currently affected.
The logical question I must ask is “if we cannot take sufficient care of 1.5 million persons currently, how can we possibly take care of 7.7 million folks in 2030?” We can not. More just 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 assume for a moment about taking in an aged parent with Alzheimer’s into your residence, please feel again. Ask any caregiver who’s been by means of it. It really is Guaranteed to destroy any families’ peace of mind and harmony.
Why are not our political leaders actively operating on options? Where’s the outcry? Regrettably our political leaders only align themselves with solvable problems.
America’s seniors became a lot more hopeful reading that Health Reform will aid them with added Long Term Care services. And we now know THAT is not going to occur. There are no plans in spot to enable our nation’s seniors assume they’ll obtain the comfort and dignity of sufficient lengthy term care services. What is worse is the silence shared by all our political leaders. The silence is now deafening.