I’m deeply concerned that the American public, specially our nation’s elders, will be relying on our government to offer lengthy term care solutions they will by no means 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 smart and financially. They’re silently discovering the savings they thought would be adequate is not adequate. They are silently fearful of operating out of revenue with no a single to care for them as they grow to be far more frail. The silence is about to turn out to be deafening.
Regrettably, when Wellness Care Reform proudly announced New Long Term Care Services, it discouraged numerous American’s from purchasing Extended Term Care Insurance coverage.
The New York Times reported on ‘Options Expand for Inexpensive Lengthy-Term Care’ THE NEW OLD AGE. The Linked Press announced ‘New Overall health Care Law Has Positive aspects for Seniors’. Point getting, the casual reader was relieved to hear their government will “take care of them” when they need lengthy term care solutions. We now know that is not about to happen.
Thankfully our representatives in Washington found that Wellness 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 long term care rewards it was intended to finance were assumed not to materialize in the 1st ten years. However, that money was not accounted for anywhere in the legislation.
The new legislation proposed to “trim” $463 billion from Medicare. Yet Medicare is at present obtaining difficulty balancing its books today. However, why does the overall health care bill tell us Medicare can operate much more cheaply going forward without the need of the accompanying reforms?
Our national media gave massive fanfare to the CLASS ACT when it passed. Sadly the media has provided the CLASS ACT’s demise little attention. Now what?
Projections show that the federal deficit is expected to exceed $700 billion annually over the subsequent decade. This basically will double the national and $900 billion represents interest on prior debt. Would the CFO of any important corporation in the United States allow the organization he worked for to end up in this sort of economic position? Definitely not.
Our officials in Congress have been elected to safeguard the most effective interests of the American folks. “Robbing Peter to spend Paul”, and once again printing extra currency, has become our government’s mantra for the future. Yet 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 financial 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 health reform were primarily based on much more “smoke and mirrors”. The “Cadillac” tax is scheduled to commence in 2018.
The health care legislation that has been forced on each and just about every 1 of us is identified to be fiscally unsound. Exactly where do we go from here? It’s too easy to point the finger at the President and his administration. However Congress owns the responsibility of passing Overall health Care Legislation. And cs4 is the difficulty.
The 535 voting members of Congress shared the responsibility equally. If one particular clear pondering, intelligent, honorable Congressman had the whole 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 Health Care Reform will operate against our senior citizens.
A most current government report identified that in 2000 there were 1.8 million readily available nursing property beds. As the year 2010 came to a close, there were 1.7 million nursing property beds a net five percent reduction in offered beds. And, there are no new nursing houses being built.
Today there is much less than 1.5 million Americans confined to nursing residences. Reportedly ten % of these nursing houses are operating beneath bankruptcy protection. It really is nicely identified that most of these facilities are understaffed and several don’t have competent aid.
Next, let’s take into account that the Alzheimer’s Association tells us the likelihood of creating Alzheimer’s just after age 85 is 50 percent. By 2030, they inform us that the quantity of individuals age 65 and older with Alzheimer’s illness is estimated to reach 7.7 million, a 50 % boost from the 5.two million age 65 and older presently impacted.
The logical query I should ask is “if we can’t take adequate care of 1.five million folks currently, how can we possibly take care of 7.7 million men and women in 2030?” We cannot. Much 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 think for a moment about taking in an aged parent with Alzheimer’s into your house, please think again. Ask any caregiver who’s been via it. It is Assured to destroy any families’ peace of mind 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 difficulties.
America’s seniors became additional hopeful reading that Health Reform will aid them with added Long Term Care solutions. And we now know THAT is not going to occur. There are no plans in location to support 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.