I am deeply concerned that the American public, particularly our nation’s elders, will be relying on our government to offer extended term care services they’ll never ever see. They will 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 overall health smart and financially. They are silently discovering the savings they believed would be adequate is not adequate. They’re silently fearful of running out of money with no one to care for them as they develop into extra frail. The silence is about to grow to be deafening.
Regrettably, when Wellness Care Reform proudly announced New Extended Term Care Solutions, it discouraged many American’s from buying Lengthy Term Care Insurance.
The New York Times reported on ‘Options Expand for Economical Lengthy-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 need lengthy term care services. 5 Quick Breakfast receipes know that is not about to come about.
Fortunately our representatives in Washington discovered that Health Care Reforms answer to the dilemma of Long Term Care, “CLASS”, (Community Living Help Solutions 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 lengthy term care advantages it was intended to finance have been assumed not to materialize in the initially 10 years. Nonetheless, that dollars was not accounted for anyplace in the legislation.
The new legislation proposed to “trim” $463 billion from Medicare. However Medicare is at present having trouble balancing its books today. Yet, why does the wellness care bill inform us Medicare can operate much more 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 given the CLASS ACT’s demise little focus. Now what?
Projections show that the federal deficit is expected to exceed $700 billion annually over the next decade. This basically will double the national and $900 billion represents interest on preceding debt. Would the CFO of any major corporation in the United States permit the enterprise he worked for to end up in this form of economic position? Absolutely not.
Our officials in Congress have been elected to guard the best interests of the American men and women. “Robbing Peter to pay Paul”, and as soon as once more printing extra currency, has come 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 not continue to mismanage its economic future. Future Congresses will have to deliver a multitude of future reforms and, regrettably, history tells us THAT will never take place. Proposals for financing health reform had been primarily based on a lot more “smoke and mirrors”. The “Cadillac” tax is scheduled to commence in 2018.
The wellness care legislation that has been forced on each and just about every 1 of us is known to be fiscally unsound. Where do we go from right here? It really is also effortless to point the finger at the President and his administration. But Congress owns the duty of passing Overall health Care Legislation. And THAT is the trouble.
The 535 voting members of Congress shared the responsibility equally. If a single clear thinking, intelligent, honorable Congressman had the whole responsibility 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 once again evaluate how Well being Care Reform will operate against our senior citizens.
A most recent government report identified that in 2000 there have been 1.eight million out there nursing home beds. As the year 2010 came to a close, there had been 1.7 million nursing household beds a net 5 percent reduction in obtainable beds. And, there are no new nursing houses getting constructed.
Right now there is less than 1.5 million Americans confined to nursing houses. Reportedly 10 percent of these nursing houses are operating beneath bankruptcy protection. It’s effectively recognized that most of these facilities are understaffed and quite a few do not have competent aid.
Subsequent, let’s take into consideration that the Alzheimer’s Association tells us the likelihood of building Alzheimer’s just after age 85 is 50 percent. By 2030, they tell us that the number of men and women age 65 and older with Alzheimer’s disease is estimated to attain 7.7 million, a 50 percent increase from the 5.two million age 65 and older currently affected.
The logical question I need to ask is “if we cannot take sufficient care of 1.five million people nowadays, how can we possibly take care of 7.7 million folks in 2030?” We cannot. Additional 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 via it. It is Guaranteed 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 challenges.
America’s seniors became a lot more hopeful reading that Overall health Reform will assistance them with added Extended Term Care solutions. And we now know THAT is not going to happen. There are no plans in spot to enable our nation’s seniors feel they’ll acquire the comfort and dignity of adequate long term care services. What is worse is the silence shared by all our political leaders. The silence is now deafening.