I have now spent about a year closely entangled with our marvelous (where IS that dripping sarcasm font when I need it?) insurance and health care industry. I feel the need to share my experiences with you to add to your collection of real life stories when you consider the necessity for serious healthcare reform in the U.S.A. Let me preface with my own opinion that the pathetic, gutted excuse for "health care reform" commonly titled "Obamacare" is NOT reform. I personally view it as a codification into law of our enslavement to our current system of health care for profit. Let me also state that I feel strongly that NOTHING which is necessary for the general welfare of the populace should ever be done for profit, nor without serious accountability to those it serves (that's us). On-wards...
Alzheimer's runs in my family. Heavily on the maternal side. A couple of years ago, my family became aware that my maternal grandmother was suffering symptoms that could not be accounted for as "mere" dementia. At the same time, her partner, my maternal uncle, was suffering lung cancer. In a few short weeks we went from awareness of these conditions to the regrettable necessity of separating the couple so that each could receive what treatment was available. My great uncle died soon after. My grandmother however remained in sound health, her mental status notwithstanding. Alzheimer's requires some rather specialized handling and full time supervision. As we were all still working then, we had to find a facility for my grandmother that was qualified to handle Alzheimer's patients. Here, is where we had our first horrified entry into the world of health care for profit.
We found a facility that professed an expertise in Alzheimer's. Our first hurdle to that facility was dual. The five members of my family with responsibility for my grandmother (My parents, myself, my aunt and uncle) could not afford the $50,000 -$80,000 ANNUALLY to keep my grandmother in this facility. Further, my grandmother was not quite destitute ( though relying mainly on Social Security for subsistence) and so Medicare/Medicaid combo would not cover well...any of it. Nightmare number 1) Beggar ourselves to keep my grandmother properly cared for, or 2) somebody beggar themselves and their retirement by ceasing employment in order to care for her full time. Neither was appetizing, or really, viable. We are middle class BUT that does not mean what it used to.
On the sad but fortunate scale, our family problem is apparently so common that the billing folks at the facility have become extremely adept in advising families in similar situations on how to solve the problem. The solution is as appalling as the problem, and is simply this. They showed us the fastest way to completely deplete my grandmother's savings and holdings in order to place her at the level of poverty required to qualify for the Medicare/Medicaid assistance that would both allow her to get the care she needed, and allow us to both continue working and not have to find a vast sum of cash between us every year. In short it was necessary to make my grandmother a beggar in order to get her treatment without crippling the rest of the family into the same situation. Sick.
I found it entirely offensive that what little my grandmother had managed to save for her retirement and from a lifetime of productivity (small business employee, no pension), had to be liquidated in order to get the basic and needed care to make her remaining years pleasant (and believe me, an Alzheimer's patient in the wrong environment is a miserable, frightened person). Basic, human dignity and existence without fear and pain should be a basic human right in the wealthiest nation in the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment