Well CUTTING the taxes on the rich doesn't help, and definitely hurts. And that's what Congress did. And republican member after member went on TV, went to town halls, went on record saying nothing would be cut except waste, fraud, and abuse. I didn't hear any of the ones that voted for it say that states would have to raise state income taxes to make up for less federal spending, that there might have to be cuts to other state spending to backfill Medicaid, that optional services and populations (like 18-21 year olds, or physical therapy and eyeglasses) might have to be cut, or that Medicaid providers would have to be paid less across the board. |
Really, the ideal would be for social programs including Medicaid to pay for more people to be cared for at home. It is dramatically cheaper than congregate care, raises quality of life, and is barely available in the US to people who cannot privately pay for it. This bill does nothing towards that end even though it also would have been a way--a much more humane way--of reducing costs. |
How do you figure that it's cheaper? When we researched this for an elderly family member, assisted living cost $10k per month, while caregivers at home cost $30k per month. |
nothing. Push it on the kids or states |
Sure, I agree that cutting taxes that would support these programs isn’t helping the situation at all. But even if we wholesale took all the money from our billionaires and put it towards Medicaid and Medicare, all that money wouldn’t fund those programs beyond a couple of years and that’s optimistic. And we’re experiencing a shortfall as it is. It’s easy to disagree with these changes and people will be harmed. But a tax increase won’t make even a dent in the problems here. The financial problems are so much bigger than throwing an extra billion at it. |
Assisted living is not the same as having a dedicated caregiver 24/7, which is why the latter costs much more. In AL many residents share the services of a small number of home health aids, and maybe of a nursing assistant, with perhaps a single RN for an entire building at any given time. The residents are mostly on their own for most purposes, receiving intermittent help and attention throughout the day, but nowhere near continuously. For this reason some people supplement institutional AL employees with some number of privately hired personal aids who support only their individual family member for a certain number of hours each day. 24/7 care, whether in-home or in a nursing home setting is much more expensive because the staff to resident ratio is 1 to 1, or close to that, rather than 1 to 6, even up to 1 to 20. |