It’s concerning that our government provides free or subsidized child care, yet Medicare fails to cover the costs of long-term nursing home care for elderly individuals who have spent decades contributing to the system through taxes. Many seniors, after a lifetime of hard work and paying into Medicare, find themselves without the support they need in their most vulnerable years. Families are often left with the difficult choice of providing full-time care themselves or facing the staggering expense of nursing home facilities, which can exceed $10,000 per month. This financial strain can be devastating, forcing families to deplete their savings or go into debt. While child care assistance helps working parents, there needs to be a greater balance in providing affordable, accessible care for the elderly. Reform is essential to ensure that seniors receive the dignity and care they deserve without imposing unbearable costs on their loved ones.
I agree that we should provide better assistance for our aging population but I am curious about this free or subsidized child care you’re talking about. Where is that an option? Because it is not national
Ren, excellent post.
Very sad.
Because politicians have been fleecing our money for all these years (instead of using on the people) , seniors could be already be getting decent and respectful care that they deserve.
The compensation for a family member to tend to a disabled elder in Florida is only $150.00 a week. That is for 10 hours of care a week. The family member spends more time DAILY tending to their loved one. Florida would rather put the elder in a nursing home. It is illogical and harsh to penalize the elder and the family member tending to same.
Whether or not this policy is might be a good idea, it’s also true while working and contributing to Medicare, we have the time and choice during those years to either save extra for the eventual need of nursing home care or buy long term care insurance to cover that possiblity. The tax burden required to insure everyone would be significant and, as others have noted in their replies, government supplied care is unlikely to be stellar.
Medicaid actually will cover long term care, once your assets (house and car excluded) are depleted to nearly zero. However, the application for Medicaid is the sticking point along with finding a Medicaid bed. Medicaid is typically declined the first ask, does not automatically kick-in, typically requires the assistance of a lawyer to make it happen, and not all care facilities support the transition from self-pay to Medicaid. We need the application process to be simpler, perhaps federalized (each state does their own), and perhaps a system of automatic asset tracking created to aid the required spend down communication. OR don’t require the spend down to get started; bill it at time of death, which Medicaid does anyway.
Note: To get a family member to be compensated for home care is impossible in Florida. They will dig into the person’s past over 20 years and find a misdemeanor that was taken care of and deny that compensation. Maybe Florida is not the place for Senior Citizens to live.