Health Care Reform - Do your homework and don’t believe the rumors

Yesterday, President Obama gave Senator Grassley credit for honestly trying to come up with a bipartisan bill and then today Grassley tells the elderly they need to be afraid of the supposed “end of life” provisions that may be in the bill. Why are we putting up with these politically motivated pieces of scare tactic misinformation? There are a number of websites that can provide people with fact checks on the possible proposals included in the health care bill. One such site has been put up by the White House. Another site that is examining claims made on both sides of the debate is Factcheck.org. Another site is MediaMatters which attempts to debunk the myths associated with the politically motivated distortions created to scare the general public. We must all think about the fact that many of us change jobs 5 to 7 times during our lifetime. That means that we must change insurance and take the chance that we would not get insurance due to pre-existing conditions that we might have gotten over the period that we were employed with our former company. Under health care reform, we could keep our insurance without penalty. We must take the initiative to inform ourselves and not believe everything that we hear or read without checking the validity of the information. More importantly, those of us that know that the there are those trying to scare the uninformed must start speaking up when those who are shouting to drown out the myths and politically motivated misinformation.

Respite care to help recharge the caregiver

How important is repite care to the health of the caregiver? The article in the Republican on June 24 provides real life examples of how respite care helps everyday people who are the primary caregivers of their elderly parents. An abstract from a pilot study conducted at the University of Florida on the effect of respite care on the stress levels of the caregivers suggests that a caregiver’s stress level will be minimized through respite care. Both of the previous materials are directly related to respite care for people caring for the elderly. However, every primary caregiver needs to take advantage of respite care services available in their region. A good resource for everyone on respite care is the ARCH National Respite Network. This website details the life of the Lifespan Respite Bill passed in 2006 and how it is completely underfunded. We all need to get in touch with our legislators and make sure that they fund the bill.