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| What will we do? |
While most Americans wait to find out how Obamacare will affect their own health care situation, Martha R Gore, Watch Dog Politics Examiner, Examiner.com, speculates that those who are most likely to bear the brunt of the legislation are the demographic who care for aging parents as well as adult children.
Medicare cuts could pose a conflict for those “middleagers,” writes Gore as they choose between health care costs for themselves and their parents while weighing the option of a multigenerational household to help keep costs down.
The follow is a sample of cuts to Medicare:
- Home health care
- Diagnostic imaging like MRIs, CT scans
- Ambulances
- Diagnostics labs
- Durable medical equipment
- Power wheelchairs unless rented for previously rented for 13 months
- Long term hospitals, nursing homes and inpatient rehab facilities
- Dialysis treatment
- Inpatient psychiatric hospitals
- Hospice
- Hospitals that treat low income seniors
According to an article in NPR the number of elderly Americans needing expensive care is going to surge as more Baby Boomers retire and begin to depend upon Medicare to meet their health needs. This is the age group born between 1946 and 1964 and many of them are expected to live to live 85 years or older. Today there are 6 million Americans in that age group.
As more cuts to Medicare are made it may mean many Americans that are still supporting children may be expected to shoulder more of the cost of taking care of the health and medical needs of elderly parents.
In some cases, this may require that the aging parent move into the family dwelling in order to cope with the financial challenges. The Pew Research Center reports that this is already happening with about 20% of older people living with another generation. However doubling up to split living costs may fall short of what is needed to care for an aging parent. Three generations in one household may become the rule rather than the exception.
Thank you for sharing this information. I recently took a physical therapy class, and we discussed quite a bit how much the population is aging. You are absolutely correct, the number of elderly Americans needing care is going to surge. They are also expected to live much longer, which could result in some difficulties.
ReplyDeleteI work with members of this generation every single day, helping them cover the out of pocket gaps brought on by government Medicare. I know that many of them have been wondering about this subject, so I will definitely be passing this material along. Thanks again for sharing.