Losing the Benefits They Paid For

If you think cutting off Social Security and Medicare is not a problem, think some more. If you're under 65, do you want your elderly parents or grandparents to move in with you? It might not be as much fun as you think.

Look up the retail prices of the medications they take. Ask the doctor's office how much an uninsured patient pays for a visit.

Do your parents want to move in with you, or would they rather stay independent as long as possible? Do you have a spare room, or will someone have to sleep on the couch? How will the folks feel about giving up their furniture and accumulated possessions? Do you have closet space for them? How many bathrooms do you have? How much money can they contribute toward groceries, utilities and other household expenses? Are you all able to make major financial and lifestyle decisions together? Do they approve of the way you clean house, or the way you cook? Do they approve of the way you are raising your children? Do you enjoy their helpful suggestions and comments?

How much help with housework will your aging parents be able to provide? Do they have problems like incontinence, short-term memory loss, hearing impairment, failing eyesight, difficulty walking? Will you be able to leave them alone when you go on vacation? Or will you take them with you, and will they (or you) enjoy it? If the day comes when they need full-time care, will you or your spouse be able to provide it? Or can you afford health care workers (strangers in your home all day)?

If your parents are no longer living, will these issues apply to aunts and uncles, aging cousins, or even your older siblings? If you still have teenagers or 20-somethings living with you, can you afford to keep them plus the older relative who needs expensive pills?

 

Your Children's Future Health Care

Imagine that you're in your seventh or eighth month of pregnancy and you go into labor. It's frightening, because you know this is too soon.

You rush to the hospital. Fortunately, you don't live in a neglected rural area where there are no hospitals and you're lucky enough to get there on a day when they aren't overcrowded, at a time when the nurses aren't in the middle of a shift change, on a day that's not a holiday. You get seen right away by the best obstetrical team in the region. Your baby is born very prematurely, weighing less than two pounds. She's alive!

Your tiny child is given the best available treatment, and spends many weeks in the NICU. There are several close calls, but the great doctors and nurses are heroic, and your baby survives, despite being very weak and sick. Finally, she's strong enough to come home. You have a long list of special instructions for her care and feeding. Fortunately, there are no major emergencies. The hospital expenses were huge, but you were fortunate to have a good health plan that covered almost everything.

As time goes by, your daughter still has some health issues, but she keeps getting stronger, and by the time she is ten years old, you would never guess she was a preemie. One day when she's 15, she falls off her bike and breaks her leg. This is a fairly normal problem, so you are shocked when your health plan refuses to pay for her treatment, because she has reached her "lifetime limit". It's not easy, but you manage to pay the bill.

You start looking around for a new health care plan, but you find out that your daughter can't get coverage because she has "pre-existing conditions."

"Wait a minute," you say, "I thought pre-existing conditions don't matter because of the Affordable Care Act."

The insurance agent replies, "Don't you remember? The ACA was repealed by the Republican majority in Congress back in 2025, after the Supreme Court installed trump as President For Life. We can now exclude anyone who's ever been sick. In fact, we are about to declare that being female is a pre-existing condition. Your daughter will never have health care coverage. Even if she somehow lives to be 75 - the new retirement age - she won't be eligible for Medicare, since it was privatized and operates under our rules. Sorry." He's not sorry.

 

Ending Social Security

If you are retired or soon to retire, and you think the Republican plan to end Social Security and Medicare makes sense, think again. Ask your doctor's office how much an office visit costs an uninsured person. Ask your pharmacist for the full retail price of the medication you take.

Do you have a 401k or other retirement account? Will it be enough to pay your bills and allow for some occasional fun?

Do you think you can just move in with your adult children or grandchildren? If so, are you sure they would welcome you? Do they have room in their home? Who would you share a bathroom with? Would they expect you to be an on-call babysitter for small children? Do you and they like the same kind of food? How much money can you contribute toward groceries, rent/mortgage and other household expenses? Do you approve of the way they clean house, or the way they cook? Do you approve of the way they are raising their children? Do they perceive your helpful suggestions and comments as interference? Do you believe they'll be able to support your needs if you become disabled or if you require full-time care? If you become incontinent (like over half of older people), do you want them to have to change your underwear?

If you'd rather keep your Social Security and Medicare, the time has come to vote for Democrats, all the way down the ballot.



Image by Besno Pile from Pixabay

Getting Rid of Medicare

If you think cutting off Social Security and Medicare is not a problem, think about it. If you're under 65, do you want your elderly parents to move in with you? It might not be as much fun as you think.

Look up the retail prices of the medications they take. Ask the doctor's office how much an uninsured patient pays for a visit. How much help with housework will your aging parents be able to provide? Do they have problems like incontinence, short-term memory loss, hearing impairment, failing eyesight, difficulty walking? Will you be able to leave them alone when you go on vacation? Or will you take them with you, and will they (or you) enjoy it? if the day comes when they need full-time care, will you or your spouse be able to provide it? Or can you afford health care workers (strangers in your home all day)?

Do your parents want to move in with you, or would they rather stay independent as long as possible? Do you have a spare room, or will someone have to sleep on the couch? Do you have closet space for them? How many bathrooms do you have? Are you all able to make major decisions together? If your parents are no longer living, will these issues apply to aunts and uncles, aging cousins, or even your older siblings? If you still have teenagers or 20-somethings living with you, can you afford to keep them plus the older relative who needs expensive pills? ^@themrswest

Photo by Christina Victoria Craft on Unsplash