The Smoke and Mirrors of Health Care Reform for the Elderly

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I am deeply concerned that the American public, especially our nation’s elders, will be relying on our government to offer long term care solutions they will under no circumstances see. They will only see the “smoke and mirrors” of Overall health Care Reform.

Our nation’s seniors are the most vulnerable segment of the U.S. population vulnerable both health smart and financially. They are silently discovering the savings they thought would be adequate is not adequate. They’re silently fearful of running out of cash with no 1 to care for them as they turn into more frail. The silence is about to come to be deafening.

Regrettably, when Overall health Care Reform proudly announced New Extended Term Care Services, it discouraged lots of American’s from buying Lengthy Term Care Insurance coverage.

The New York Times reported on ‘Options Expand for Cost-effective Long-Term Care’ THE NEW OLD AGE. The Connected Press announced ‘New Overall health Care Law Has Rewards for Seniors’. Point being, the casual reader was relieved to hear their government will “take care of them” when they need long term care services. We now know that is not about to happen.

Thankfully our representatives in Washington discovered that Health Care Reforms answer to the problem of Long Term Care, “CLASS”, (Neighborhood Living Help Services and Supports Act) legislation would have been fiscally unsound. $70 billion in premiums that was expected to be raised for the new “lengthy term care” plan would have been counted as “deficit reduction”. The long term care added benefits it was intended to finance were assumed not to materialize in the initial 10 years. On the other hand, that dollars was not accounted for anyplace in the legislation.

The new legislation proposed to “trim” $463 billion from Medicare. Yet Medicare is at the moment obtaining problems balancing its books these days. But, why does the well being care bill inform us Medicare can operate extra cheaply going forward without having the accompanying reforms?

Our national media gave massive fanfare to the CLASS ACT when it passed. Unfortunately the media has offered the CLASS ACT’s demise little attention. Now what?

Projections show that the federal deficit is expected to exceed $700 billion annually more than the next decade. This basically will double the national and $900 billion represents interest on earlier debt. Would the CFO of any important corporation in the United States enable the firm he worked for to end up in this kind of financial position? Absolutely not.

Our officials in Congress have been elected to shield the very best interests of the American people. “Robbing Peter to pay Paul”, and when once more printing extra currency, has grow to be 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 monetary future. Future Congresses will have to provide a multitude of future reforms and, regrettably, history tells us THAT will under no circumstances occur. Proposals for financing well being reform had been primarily based on more “smoke and mirrors”. The “Cadillac” tax is scheduled to begin in 2018.

The wellness care legislation that has been forced on every single and every single one of us is identified to be fiscally unsound. Where do we go from here? It’s also quick to point the finger at the President and his administration. However Congress owns the duty of passing Well being Care Legislation. And THAT is the problem.

The 535 voting members of Congress shared the duty equally. If one particular clear pondering, intelligent, honorable Congressman had the whole responsibility for Well being Care Reform, he or she would not have forced a fiscally unsound Health Care Reform Bill down our throats.

Now let’s again evaluate how Health Care Reform will operate against our senior citizens.

A most recent government report identified that in 2000 there were 1.eight million readily available nursing property beds. As the year 2010 came to a close, there have been 1.7 million nursing house beds a net five % reduction in obtainable beds. And, there are no new nursing properties becoming constructed.

Today there is less than 1.five million Americans confined to nursing houses. Reportedly ten percent of these nursing homes are operating below bankruptcy protection. hipaa compliant email is properly recognized that most of these facilities are understaffed and lots of do not have competent assist.

Next, let’s think about that the Alzheimer’s Association tells us the likelihood of developing Alzheimer’s following age 85 is 50 %. By 2030, they tell us that the quantity of individuals age 65 and older with Alzheimer’s disease is estimated to reach 7.7 million, a 50 % enhance from the five.2 million age 65 and older at the moment affected.

The logical query I must ask is “if we can’t take sufficient care of 1.5 million persons right now, how can we possibly take care of 7.7 million folks in 2030?” We cannot. More basically place, 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 think for a moment about taking in an aged parent with Alzheimer’s into your household, please think once more. Ask any caregiver who’s been by way of it. It is Assured to destroy any families’ peace of thoughts and harmony.

Why are not our political leaders actively functioning on options? Where’s the outcry? Regrettably our political leaders only align themselves with solvable complications.

America’s seniors became far more hopeful reading that Wellness Reform will assistance them with added Extended Term Care services. And we now know THAT is not going to take place. There are no plans in location to assist our nation’s seniors believe they will acquire the comfort and dignity of sufficient lengthy term care solutions. What is worse is the silence shared by all our political leaders. The silence is now deafening.

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