The Smoke and Mirrors of Health Care Reform for the Elderly

I’m deeply concerned that the American public, particularly our nation’s elders, will be relying on our government to provide long term care services they will under no circumstances 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 both overall health wise and financially. They’re silently discovering the savings they thought would be adequate is not enough. They are silently fearful of operating out of revenue with no one to care for them as they develop into more frail. The silence is about to turn into deafening.

Regrettably, when Overall health Care Reform proudly announced New Lengthy Term Care Solutions, it discouraged a lot of American’s from purchasing Lengthy Term Care Insurance.

The New York Occasions reported on ‘Options Expand for Affordable Lengthy-Term Care’ THE NEW OLD AGE. The Associated Press announced ‘New Overall health Care Law Has Positive aspects for Seniors’. Point being, the casual reader was relieved to hear their government will “take care of them” when they have to have long term care services. We now know that is not about to come about.

Thankfully our representatives in Washington found that Overall health Care Reforms answer to the dilemma of Long Term Care, “CLASS”, (Neighborhood Living Assistance Solutions and Supports Act) legislation would have been fiscally unsound. $70 billion in premiums that was expected to be raised for the new “long term care” plan would have been counted as “deficit reduction”. The extended term care positive aspects it was intended to finance have been assumed not to materialize in the first 10 years. Even so, that income was not accounted for anyplace in the legislation.

The new legislation proposed to “trim” $463 billion from Medicare. However Medicare is presently having trouble balancing its books currently. But, why does the health care bill tell us Medicare can operate a lot more cheaply going forward without the need of the accompanying reforms?

Our national media gave massive fanfare to the CLASS ACT when it passed. Unfortunately the media has given the CLASS ACT’s demise little interest. 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 prior debt. Would the CFO of any important corporation in the United States permit the organization he worked for to end up in this type of financial position? Definitely not.

Our officials in Congress have been elected to shield the finest interests of the American folks. “Robbing Peter to pay Paul”, and when again printing additional currency, has grow 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’t 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 occur. Proposals for financing wellness reform have been based on more “smoke and mirrors”. The “Cadillac” tax is scheduled to commence in 2018.

The well being care legislation that has been forced on each and every one particular of us is recognized to be fiscally unsound. Where do we go from here? It really is also uncomplicated to point the finger at the President and his administration. Yet Congress owns the responsibility of passing Wellness Care Legislation. And THAT is the difficulty.

The 535 voting members of Congress shared the duty equally. If a single clear thinking, intelligent, honorable Congressman had the complete 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 recent government report identified that in 2000 there had been 1.8 million offered nursing property beds. As the year 2010 came to a close, there were 1.7 million nursing house beds a net 5 percent reduction in out there beds. And, there are no new nursing properties getting constructed.

Now there’s physician burnout than 1.five million Americans confined to nursing properties. Reportedly ten percent of these nursing residences are operating under bankruptcy protection. It’s properly identified that most of these facilities are understaffed and quite a few do not have competent assist.

Next, 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 individuals age 65 and older with Alzheimer’s disease is estimated to reach 7.7 million, a 50 % raise from the five.2 million age 65 and older at the moment affected.

The logical question I have to ask is “if we can’t take adequate care of 1.5 million individuals currently, how can we possibly take care of 7.7 million folks in 2030?” We cannot. Extra just 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 consider for a moment about taking in an aged parent with Alzheimer’s into your household, please consider once again. Ask any caregiver who’s been via it. It is Assured 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 challenges.

America’s seniors became much more hopeful reading that Wellness Reform will assist them with added Extended Term Care services. And we now know THAT is not going to happen. There are no plans in spot to enable our nation’s seniors assume they will get the comfort and dignity of sufficient long term care services. What’s worse is the silence shared by all our political leaders. The silence is now deafening.