I am deeply concerned that the American public, particularly our nation’s elders, will be relying on our government to provide long term care solutions they’ll under no circumstances 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 each wellness sensible and financially. They are silently discovering the savings they thought would be adequate is not adequate. They are silently fearful of operating out of money with no one particular to care for them as they develop into extra frail. The silence is about to become deafening.
Regrettably, when Wellness Care Reform proudly announced New Extended Term Care Services, it discouraged several American’s from buying Long Term Care Insurance.
The New York Occasions reported on ‘Options Expand for Affordable Long-Term Care’ THE NEW OLD AGE. The Connected Press announced ‘New Overall health Care Law Has Added benefits for Seniors’. Point being, the casual reader was relieved to hear their government will “take care of them” when they need to have extended term care services. We now know that is not about to happen.
Luckily our representatives in Washington found that Wellness Care Reforms answer to the problem of Long Term Care, “CLASS”, (Community Living Assistance Solutions and Supports Act) legislation would have been fiscally unsound. $70 billion in premiums that was anticipated to be raised for the new “lengthy term care” system would have been counted as “deficit reduction”. The lengthy term care advantages it was intended to finance were assumed not to materialize in the 1st ten years. However, that dollars was not accounted for anywhere in the legislation.
The new legislation proposed to “trim” $463 billion from Medicare. Yet Medicare is currently having trouble 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 provided the CLASS ACT’s demise little focus. Now what?
Projections show that the federal deficit is anticipated to exceed $700 billion annually more than the subsequent decade. This primarily will double the national and $900 billion represents interest on preceding debt. Would the CFO of any key corporation in the United States enable the firm he worked for to end up in this form of monetary position? Completely not.
Our officials in Congress have been elected to defend the ideal interests of the American individuals. “Robbing Peter to pay Paul”, and once again printing additional currency, has turn into 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 cannot continue to mismanage its economic future. Future Congresses will have to provide a multitude of future reforms and, regrettably, history tells us THAT will by no means take place. Proposals for financing overall health reform have been primarily based on extra “smoke and mirrors”. The “Cadillac” tax is scheduled to commence in 2018.
The health care legislation that has been forced on each and each and every one particular of us is identified to be fiscally unsound. Exactly where do we go from right here? It’s too effortless to point the finger at the President and his administration. However Congress owns the responsibility of passing Well being Care Legislation. And THAT is the trouble.
The 535 voting members of Congress shared the responsibility equally. If one clear pondering, intelligent, honorable Congressman had the entire duty for Wellness Care Reform, he or she would not have forced a fiscally unsound Well being Care Reform Bill down our throats.
Now let’s again evaluate how Well being Care Reform will perform against our senior citizens.
A most current government report identified that in 2000 there have been 1.8 million offered nursing home beds. As the year 2010 came to a close, there were 1.7 million nursing household beds a net 5 percent reduction in offered beds. And, there are buy etizolam nursing residences getting constructed.
Now there is much less than 1.5 million Americans confined to nursing houses. Reportedly ten percent of these nursing homes are operating under bankruptcy protection. It really is effectively known that most of these facilities are understaffed and quite a few never have competent aid.
Subsequent, let’s look at that the Alzheimer’s Association tells us the likelihood of building Alzheimer’s right after age 85 is 50 percent. By 2030, they inform us that the quantity of folks age 65 and older with Alzheimer’s disease is estimated to reach 7.7 million, a 50 % increase from the 5.two million age 65 and older presently impacted.
The logical query I must ask is “if we cannot take adequate care of 1.5 million persons nowadays, how can we possibly take care of 7.7 million people today in 2030?” We can’t. Far more simply 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 consider for a moment about taking in an aged parent with Alzheimer’s into your dwelling, please consider once again. Ask any caregiver who’s been by way of it. It really is Guaranteed to destroy any families’ peace of mind and harmony.
Why aren’t our political leaders actively operating on solutions? Where’s the outcry? Regrettably our political leaders only align themselves with solvable complications.
America’s seniors became more hopeful reading that Wellness Reform will enable them with added Extended Term Care services. And we now know THAT is not going to come about. There are no plans in place to assist our nation’s seniors feel they’ll obtain the comfort and dignity of adequate extended term care solutions. What’s worse is the silence shared by all our political leaders. The silence is now deafening.