Contact your legislator about helping to get caregiver legislation passed to help veterans

S 1963 in the Senate and HR 3155 are bills that would provide training for caregivers to help our injured and ill veterans. As in the Health Care Reform legislation, the differences between the Congressional bill and the Senate Bill are holding up needed legislation to help our brave veterans get the the best help to rehabilitate and/or provide the best care possible for the mental, psychological, and physical issues. With all of the innovations in medical care, veterans that would have died in years past are living with many problems. We need to support our troops with providing them with the best trained caregivers available. Additionally, so many of the military people have been on tours of duty more than being home. These personnel and veterans are affected by post traumatic stress and other stress related disorders. We need to support them by contacting our legislators and get them to compromise on the bills and pass a bill that will provide the help to our servicemen and women and veterans that they deserve. Contact your legislator.

Senator Edward Kennedy’s contribution to affordable Long Term Insurance

The Community Living Assistance Services and Support Act 2009 was introduced by Senator Kennedy (S. 697) and Congressman Jack Pallone (H.R. 1721). According to the fact sheet put out by the Alliance for Retired Americans, Medicare covers very little of the long term services needed and one must have less than $2000 in savings to qualify for Medicaid. Hence, people are forced into institutions and poverty if they require long term medical services. Furthermore, over 40% of people will need over 2 years of long term services and support. Think about what this is costing taxpayers and caregivers who must help cover these costs if they want their family member to get quality care. The bill would create a National Insurance Program supported through voluntary payroll deductions of anyone working 18 years of age and older. This large pool of people in the program will decrease the cost of Long Term Services and Support.

The lack of Long Term Health Insurance is not only a drain on the finances of the person directly affected but also family and friends that chip in to make sure their loved one is properly cared for. We all need to not only have access to affordable health care, we should have access to affordable Long Term Health Care. Contact your legislative representative and make sure that you let him/her know that you want the Class Act to pass.

Silent majority must stand up for health care reform

We have seen on the news some clearly misinformed people yelling and disrupting the town hall meetings on health care reform. We have seen many older people worried about whether they will be getting less care to fund care for others. Many of these people have relevant concerns about the lack of clear, concise information about what might REALLY be in a health care reform bill. Others are basing their dissent on fear based on the misinformation put out by opponents of the health care reform. What we need is for President Obama to step up and put down on paper what he will not negotiate on and what he will compromise on based on his original promises to people as he campaigned. The other thing that must happen is those people, like me, who have experienced losing a job and have had to scrounge around for health care must start speaking up. I am always amazed at the people arguing against the public option who know someone who collects disability, gets medicare, medicaid, social security, etc. These programs are supported by public funds. Without these programs, the grandparents, parents, disabled friend or child of those someone voicing their argumentative dissent about a pubic option in health care reform would not get the care and help they need. Part of the problem is that there is NO health care bill…just volumes of ideas being thrown around. Those Republican Congresspeople who are arguing against public options are more than happy to be buried in Arlington Cemetery and collect a large pension. This is not a political issue. It is a human issue.

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.