The Smoke and Mirrors of Health Care Reform for the Elderly

So i am deeply concerned that the American public, especially our nation's elders, will be relying on our government to provide long term maintenance services they'll never see. They'll only see the "smoke and mirrors" of Health Care Reform.

Our nation's more mature adults are the most vulnerable segment of the U. S. population; vulnerable both health wise and financially. They're quietly discovering the savings they thought would be enough is not enough. They're silently fearful of running out of profit with no one to care for them as they become more frail. The silence is about to become deafening.

Regrettably, when Health Care Change proudly announced New Long Term Care Services, it discouraged many American's from purchasing Long Term Care Insurance.

The brand new York Times reported on 'Options Expand for Affordable Long-Term Care' THE NEW OLD AGE. The Associated Press launched 'New Health Care Law Has Benefits for Seniors'. Point being, the casual reader was relieved to hear their own government will "take care of them" when they need long term care services. We now know that is not about to come to pass.

Fortunately our representatives in Washington discovered that Health Care Reforms answer to the problem of Long Term Care, "CLASS", (Community Living Help Services and Supports Act) legislation would have been fiscally unsound. $70 billion in premiums that was expected to end up raised for the new "long term care" program would have been counted as "deficit reduction". The long term care positive aspects it was intended to finance were assumed not to materialize in the first 10 years. However , that money was not accounted with regard to anywhere in the legislation.

The new legislation proposed to "trim" $463 billion from Medicare. Yet Medicare is currently having problems balancing its books today. Yet, why does the health care bill tell us Medicare can operate more cheaply moving forward without the accompanying reforms?

Our national media gave enormous fanfare to the CLASS ACT when it passed. Sorry to say the media has given the CLASS ACT's demise little attention. Now what?

Projections show that the country wide deficit is expected to exceed $700 billion annually over the next decade. This essentially will double the domestic and $900 billion represents interest on previous debt. Would the CFO of any major corporation in the allow the company he worked for to end up in this type of financial position? Absolutely not.

Our officials in Congress are generally elected to protect the best interests of the American people. "Robbing Peter to pay Paul", and once again printing more foreign exchange, has become our government's mantra for the future. Yet the magnitude of the mismanagement of America's purse strings has now reached a great unconscionable state.

The United States of America cannot continue to mismanage its financial future. Future Congresses will have to deliver a ton of future reforms and, regrettably, history tells us THAT will never happen. Proposals for financing health reform have been based on more "smoke and mirrors". The "Cadillac" tax is scheduled to begin in 2018.

The health care regulation that has been forced on each and every one of us is known to be fiscally unsound. Where do we go from here? It is actually too easy to point the finger at the President and his administration. Yet Congress owns the responsibility of completing Health Care Legislation. And THAT is the problem.

The 535 voting members of Congress shared the responsibility equally. If one crystal clear thinking, intelligent, honorable Congressman had the entire responsibility for Health 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 work with our senior citizens.

A most recent government report identified that in 2000 there were 1 . 8 million available looking after home beds. As the year 2010 came to a close, there were 1 . 7 million nursing home beds; a world-wide-web 5 percent reduction in available beds. And, there are no new nursing homes being built.

Today there's less than one 5 million Americans confined to nursing homes. Reportedly 10 percent of these nursing homes are operating under bankruptcy protection. It is really well known that most of these facilities are understaffed and many don't have competent help.

Next, let's consider that the Alzheimer's Association explains to us the likelihood of developing Alzheimer's after age 85 is 50 percent. By 2030, they tell us that the amount of people age 65 and older with Alzheimer's disease is estimated to reach 7. 7 million, a 50 percentage increase from the 5. 2 million age 65 and older currently affected.

The logical question I must inquire is "if we cannot take adequate care of 1. 5 million people today, how can we possibly take care of 7. 7 million people in 2030? " We cannot. More simply put, when you or your spouse or your father or mother has Alzheimer's, there is no place for them to go. Not to be cruel, but if you ever think for a moment about experiencing an aged parent with Alzheimer's into your home, please think again. Ask any caregiver who's been through it. Its GUARANTEED to destroy any families' peace of mind and harmony.

Why aren't our political leaders actively working on options? Where's the outcry? Regrettably our political leaders only align themselves with solvable problems.

America's seniors grew to be more hopeful reading that Health Reform will help them with added Long Term Care services. And we now know is not going to happen. There are no plans in place to help our nation's seniors think they'll receive the comfort and pride of adequate long term care services. What's worse is the silence shared by all our political leaders. That silence is now deafening.

Now there's newfound hope on the horizon. We have a new President election just starting to evolve. Everything that the Republican and Democratic candidates have to say about our nations seniors need for long term care services? Just what do they think about the need for 7. 7 million Americans with Alzheimer's that need a place to spend the night and be looked after when we can't take care of 1 . 5 million seniors today?

The national media needs to start reporting that our country's seniors will have no place to spend the night when they become too old or frail to take care of themselves. Then the upcoming selection presents one more opportunity for our political leaders to pay attention to our nation's elderly and their need for long term attention services.