I have heard the funding for caregiver organizations in NH will be getting BIG BUDGET CUTS on May 15 2015. These are organizations are so very helpful to so many people. How can we be heard to help stop these cuts.
Jessie, I agree about people running to the doctors all the time. I would take my parents to their primary doctor and the office would automatically set my parents up for another visit 3 months down the road. After 6 years of going 4 times a year I finally decided that when my parents made that next appointment that I would postpone that appointment and drag it out for as long as I can. It's ridiculous because my parent's health wasn't changing that much.
I also agree that we need to look at how Europe is dealing with the elderly, and learn from what works there.
I don't know what we can do. Our government is not prepared to take on the high costs of medical care in the US, just as the citizens are not prepared. Citizens need to use health services less. They need to use "free" health services as little as they can get by with. Sometimes I look at people and wonder why in the world they are going to the doctor so much. I wonder that about my mother. In the last 50 years, citizens in the US have been taught that they are being bad people if they don't go to the doctor a lot. Insurance paying for everything has gotten people in the habit, because they don't see the real cost of their behavior.
It may be by the time several of us caregivers get to the NH age that Medicaid will not be able to cover things. If we don't have a backup, we could find ourselves on cot in a ward with other indigent people. I think the US should look at programs in northern Europe to formulate a plan. We can say that people should have worked harder and should have saved more, but it doesn't correct the fact that the people don't have enough money after they are old.
We talk about what people should do to prepare for their future, but we don't stop to think that about half of the people in the US barely make a living wage. How can you expect someone to keep up with their lives, buy LTC insurance, and stash money when they are living month to month? It cost more to live than many can afford.
One has to remember that when it comes time to vote and if on the ballot are requests to raise taxes you can almost bet that most of the voters will vote *no*. We have only ourselves to blame.
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I also agree that we need to look at how Europe is dealing with the elderly, and learn from what works there.
It may be by the time several of us caregivers get to the NH age that Medicaid will not be able to cover things. If we don't have a backup, we could find ourselves on cot in a ward with other indigent people. I think the US should look at programs in northern Europe to formulate a plan. We can say that people should have worked harder and should have saved more, but it doesn't correct the fact that the people don't have enough money after they are old.
We talk about what people should do to prepare for their future, but we don't stop to think that about half of the people in the US barely make a living wage. How can you expect someone to keep up with their lives, buy LTC insurance, and stash money when they are living month to month? It cost more to live than many can afford.
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