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Good evening, friends, and welcome to the Wednesday edition of ONN. I am someone who came of age, both chronologically and politically, in the late 1960s. I am a liberal and a progressive, but most of all I am a second-wave feminist. We always argued that the personal is political. Tonight I want to take a very personal perspective on the Ryan-Romney approach to Medicare and the federal budget. Please follow me below the stylized fist bump.
As many of you know, my mom passed away last October a few weeks before her 93rd birthday. She was part of the fastest growing segment of the US population, the old-old or those over 85.
Persons 65 and older have become the fastest growing segment of the U.S. population according to a new report from the U.S. Census Bureau.
According to the Census' report, The Older Population: 2010, results of Census 2010 showed that the 65 and older age group grew to 40.3 million people, a 15.1% increase from 35.0 million counted in Census 2000, easily outpacing the 9.7% growth of the total U.S. population since 2000.
Among those over 65, persons 85- to 94-years-old experienced the fastest growth between 2000 and 2010. This group grew by 29.9%, increasing from 3.9 million to 5.1 million. Link.
A key aspect of the Ryan-Romney plan is that it would replace traditional Medicare with vouchers for those born after 1956. As we all know, there are a number of serious problems with this approach. While a healthy senior in his/her 60s, like blue jersey dad, might (and I emphasize might) be able to obtain private health insurance, most octogenarians and those seniors with serious health problems will not be able to find private insurance.
Here is the documentation from the US government's own history of Medicare:
For some time [in the 1950s], Social Security officials had been troubled by the fact that, as long as the social security system failed to protect against the greatest single cause of economic dependency in old age--the high cost of medical care--it could not really fulfill its basic objective.
Old people were long considered "bad risks" by commercial insurers, and unions had not made much headway in obtaining coverage for retired workers through employer-sponsored plans.
Here's my mom's story. Mom was a tough and strong old lady. She worked full-time until she was 75, and then she retired to a "active adult" community in South Jersey. When she reached her late 80s, she began to have some trouble with the activities of daily living. She was diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment, and after spending some time as a visitor, she decided to move to an assisted living community. Her monthly costs were about $1000 per month more than her SS and her pension, but my sister and I thought that we could make up the difference if her money ran out.
Mom did very well for the first few years. She joined us for all the holidays, and BJD, son 2, and I were able to take her to lunch for her 91st birthday. In January of 2010, my mom experienced the first of a series of health catastrophes. She broke her hip; she was over medicated twice in the hospital; she dislocated her shoulder; and then she experienced respiratory collapse. By early April, my mom has lost the use of both her legs and the use of one of her arms. She had also developed severe dementia. She was about to be sent to the ICU, and I asked about hospice care. Hospice is paid for 100% by Medicare. Hospice provides some help with personal care, all pain medications, visits by a nurse practitioner, incontinence supplies, and other support (social workers, chaplains, etc.). My mom was eventually able to leave the hospital and return to assisted living. Even with the help from Medicare, she required round-the-clock care (which is very expensive). Although she was expected to survive for only 3-4 weeks, she hung on for another year and a half. If she had not passed in October of 2011, we would have run through all her assets (nearly all of which were from the sale of her home) within about a year. We discussed this situation with the assisted living facility. At the point when her assets were exhausted, she would have become a dual-eligible, eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid. One of the most unfortunate and under-discussed parts of the Ryan plan is that it includes drastic cuts to Medicaid. What happens to these dual-eligibles under the Ryan plan? And what private insurer will provide insurance to a bed-ridden 92-year-old? This is the discussion we need to have now.
In addition, 43% of Americans over age 85 suffer from Alzheimer's disease. How is someone who suffers from memory loss and has trouble speaking supposed to choose between competing medical plans? What private insurer would be willing to insure someone who has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's? What happens to the seniors who don't have a son or daughter to look after them?
All the great religious traditions call on us to care for the most vulnerable members of our society--the sick, the poor, the elderly, and the children. Here are some comments on the Ryan budget by people of faith:
Father Thomas Kelly, Catholic priest from Elkhorn, WI and constituent of Rep. Paul Ryan: “As a constituent of Congressman Ryan and a Catholic priest, I’m disappointed by his cruel budget plan and outraged that he defends it on moral grounds. Ryan is Catholic, and he knows that justice for the poor and economic fairness are core elements of our church’s social teaching. It’s shameful that he disregarded these principles in his budget.”
Rev. Michael Livingston, director of the National Council of Churches’ Poverty Initiative:
“Rep. Ryan’s budget uses the deficit as an excuse to pursue an ideological agenda that
punishes poor people who can’t find a job. If Rep. Ryan wants us to take his moralizing
about the national debt seriously, he should have the courage to ask for shared sacrifice from his millionaire donors instead of kicking poor families while they’re down.”
There are many ways to reduce the budget deficit without doing it on the back of the poor, the sick, and the elderly. We can do our part by supporting Obama/Biden and the down-ticket progressive Democrats.