I am deeply concerned that the American public, specifically our nation’s elders, will be relying on our government to offer extended term care solutions they will never 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 health sensible and financially. They’re silently discovering the savings they thought would be adequate is not adequate. They’re silently fearful of operating out of revenue with no one to care for them as they grow to be more frail. The silence is about to grow to be deafening.
Regrettably, when Overall health Care Reform proudly announced New Lengthy Term Care Solutions, it discouraged a lot of American’s from buying Lengthy Term Care Insurance.
The New York Occasions reported on ‘Options Expand for Cost-effective Lengthy-Term Care’ THE NEW OLD AGE. The Related Press announced ‘New Wellness Care Law Has Benefits for Seniors’. Point being, the casual reader was relieved to hear their government will “take care of them” when they require extended term care services. hipaa compliant email know that is not about to occur.
Fortunately our representatives in Washington discovered that Wellness Care Reforms answer to the difficulty of Extended Term Care, “CLASS”, (Neighborhood 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 “long term care” program would have been counted as “deficit reduction”. The long term care rewards it was intended to finance had been assumed not to materialize in the initially 10 years. Having said that, that dollars was not accounted for anyplace in the legislation.
The new legislation proposed to “trim” $463 billion from Medicare. However Medicare is presently getting trouble balancing its books now. Yet, why does the health care bill tell us Medicare can operate a lot more cheaply going forward with out the accompanying reforms?
Our national media gave enormous 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 expected to exceed $700 billion annually more than the next decade. This essentially will double the national and $900 billion represents interest on prior debt. Would the CFO of any significant corporation in the United States allow the organization he worked for to end up in this sort of economic position? Completely not.
Our officials in Congress have been elected to defend the ideal interests of the American people. “Robbing Peter to spend Paul”, and after once again printing extra currency, has turn out 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 not continue to mismanage its monetary future. Future Congresses will have to deliver a multitude of future reforms and, regrettably, history tells us THAT will by no means occur. Proposals for financing wellness reform were based on a lot more “smoke and mirrors”. The “Cadillac” tax is scheduled to start in 2018.
The well being care legislation that has been forced on every single and each and every one of us is known to be fiscally unsound. Where do we go from right here? It’s as well quick to point the finger at the President and his administration. But Congress owns the responsibility of passing Overall health Care Legislation. And THAT is the dilemma.
The 535 voting members of Congress shared the responsibility equally. If 1 clear pondering, intelligent, honorable Congressman had the complete 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 once more evaluate how Overall health Care Reform will operate against our senior citizens.
A most recent government report identified that in 2000 there had been 1.eight million out there nursing residence beds. As the year 2010 came to a close, there have been 1.7 million nursing dwelling beds a net five % reduction in available beds. And, there are no new nursing properties getting built.
Nowadays there is significantly less than 1.5 million Americans confined to nursing residences. Reportedly 10 % of these nursing residences are operating under bankruptcy protection. It really is well identified that most of these facilities are understaffed and many don’t have competent assistance.
Next, let’s think about that the Alzheimer’s Association tells us the likelihood of building Alzheimer’s soon after age 85 is 50 percent. By 2030, they tell us that the quantity of persons age 65 and older with Alzheimer’s illness is estimated to attain 7.7 million, a 50 % enhance from the 5.two million age 65 and older at the moment affected.
The logical question I should ask is “if we can not take sufficient care of 1.five million folks now, how can we possibly take care of 7.7 million people in 2030?” We can’t. More basically place, when you or your spouse or your parent has Alzheimer’s, there is no spot for them to go. Not to be cruel, but if you ever feel for a moment about taking in an aged parent with Alzheimer’s into your household, please assume again. Ask any caregiver who’s been through it. It is Assured to destroy any families’ peace of thoughts and harmony.
Why aren’t our political leaders actively working 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 Health Reform will support them with added Long Term Care services. And we now know THAT is not going to take place. There are no plans in place to enable our nation’s seniors believe they will obtain the comfort and dignity of adequate extended term care solutions. What is worse is the silence shared by all our political leaders. The silence is now deafening.