Long Term Care - another health crisis - an op-ed by Teresa Heinz Kerry

[karynnj]

While Senators and Congressmen are working on the very real need to fix the broken healthcare system, there is another crisis that will be coming up behind it - dealing with long term care.

Here is a wonderful, strong caring op-ed written on the subject by Teresa Heinz Kerry and Jeffery Lewis.

"In the middle of the night, an elderly parent cries out, and time and again, it is a daughter answering the call, a woman who only hours later and with little sleep will call out to her own children, telling them it's time for breakfast and school. And, as she watches the kids head for the bus, she'll dread the thought of being a burden to them as she grows old.

Every morning, millions of American women wake to tough economic times with growing anxieties about how to care for their aging parents, their own families and their own retirement years. It's mostly women responsible for the care of elderly relatives -- seven out of every 10 adult children helping their parents are female, according to the Older Women's League. And many of those women are single, divorced or widowed, shouldering the burden alone, living longer with fewer resources.

Long-term care is the real American health care crisis. The American people know it because they're living it. Two-thirds of American seniors recognize the need to plan for long-term care, yet only 12 percent feel they're adequately prepared. But it is a crisis Congress avoids, focused instead on redesigning our health care system to help the uninsured."

Later in the op-ed, they refer people to work the Heinz foundation has done and direct people to a web site that could help people plan for this possibility.

(edited to correct typo in Teresa's name)

The Heinz Family Philanthropies has partnered with the Foundation for the Future of Aging in developing the ''10 Questions to Answer'' series (www.tenquestionstoanswer.org) -- information to assist consumers and family caregivers who are planning for, choosing and managing long-term care. The series guides consumers in thinking about all of the available long-term care options, while focusing on quality of life.


http://www.mcall.com/news/opinion/anotherview/all-yv_heinz0529.6914017jul07,0,2745688.story

[Cleita]

1. This is another reason we need national health care because this is the time of

life that families need support. Sick, old people can't generate profits so no one wants to care for them or help their families care for them.

[karynnj]

2. From their own words, both Kerrys would agree completely with you

John Kerry, a few weeks ago responded to a question on the public option on Daily Kos, saying:

"Been working very hard on the Finance committee to try to see it included. Harder slog than it ought to be. I ran for President with a public option as an anchor off my health care plan, want to see one now that we get to do reform. Would do Medicare for all if I could start from scratch, so I’m a definite supporter of a strong, national public option. We’ll see what we can do. Glad to see HELP Committee passed out a bill with one today – EMK and Dodd, you couldn’t have two better leaders on this issue."

In 1996, when CW was that nothing could be done on federal health insurance benefits, Kerry and Kennedy wrote a bill that was the precursor bill to Medicare. After the election, with 55 Republicans in the Senate, Kennedy and Hatch got SCHIP passed. Teresa was the daughter of a doctor, who took her with him into rural areas of Mozambique where many of his patients lived.

Teresa and the Heinz Foundation have done a huge amount of work on women's pension rights, health and environmental toxins.

[karynnj]

3. Link to the Heinz Foundation

http://www.heinz.org/about_mission.aspx

[Romulox]

4. So insuring the uninsured is a distraction from the "real" problem???

My god but this woman, Teresa Heinz Kerry, has a tin ear for the concerns of we "little" people. Thank god she is he to tell us what our "real" crises are. :eyes:

[beachmom]

5. That is not what she said AND clearly, you don't realize what a major

crisis it is for a family when an elderly person can no longer take care of themselves. You do get that it costs hundreds of thousands of dollars a YEAR for a full care nursing home facility, don't you? If lack of health insurance or a catastrophic illness doesn't take out a family's finances, long term care will.

[Romulox]

6. Her words:

Long-term care is the real American health care crisis. The American people know it because they're living it. Two-thirds of American seniors recognize the need to plan for long-term care, yet only 12 percent feel they're adequately prepared. But it is a crisis Congress avoids, focused instead on redesigning our health care system to help the uninsured. (emphasis mine)

" AND clearly, you don't realize what a major crisis it is for a family when an elderly person can no longer take care of themselves."

On the contrary, when the PTB start setting up bullshit, false dichotomies that pit the elderly against the young and poor, we are being set up for the bum's rush with regard to the goal of coverage for all.

[karynnj]

11. You are bringing your own ideas into this

She does not say that Congress should not be focused on health care, she is explaining why there is no energy to deal with long term care. Both systems are broken. (At worse that sentence is not worded well.)

Where you get that this means she is against coverage for all is beyond me - that is NOT something she said.

[karynnj]

10. That is absolutely not how I would interpret that

She has always been for universal health insurance. Her point is that Congress is working on insuring the uninsured, but there is this additionally looming problem.

As to "little people" she personally helped her father treat impoverished blacks on weekends in Mozambique as a teen and the Heinz Foundation as partially funded clincs in some undeveloped areas.

[Bennyboy]

7. I am the caregiver for my 84 year old Mom.....

and she cannot pay for her long term care anymore. So it will be up to me. I ahve nomoney, she has no money and the State is going to take the measly pittance I get from them away. This is a very serious problem. I cannot imagine what my kids will have to deal with. Fortunatly, I manage to make do, but I cannot imagine that many people willing to spend their time doing what I do for no money whatsoever and that is what is happening.

My Mom and dad paid into long term care for long time and now when tehy need it, it is gone becasue she can no longer pay for it.

Another thing that is not being discussed is mentla health. I too been down that road with my parents and myself.

[kickysnana]

12. A thought

You cannot be paid to care for an immediate family member as a PCA or homemaker (with very little initial training) a parent or a child but you can be paid as an aid (medicare or medicaid) waivers to care for an aunt or uncle. Perhaps you could figure something out with a cousin in a duplex or same apartment building situation. It might be enough to pay rent and let you get by.

These tough times need creative thinking but I know these programs vary from state to state.

[BlueIris]

8. K&R. nt

[politicasista]

9. Kick

Thanks Momma T. :kick: :patriot:

[ProSense]

13. Excellent!

Teresa Kerry is a champion on this issue.

[babylonsister]

14. Rec'd! She needs to write more! nt

[karynnj]

15. She did co-write a book with her husband

I really liked the parts she wrote. In one part she speaks of growing up in Mozambique, including a cute story of her cousins and her finding a beetle they couldn't classify - they took it to a natural history museum and because it was not known it was named after the kids. She also had a very detailed on toxins - that includes issues that are only now getting media attention. (like phylates)

[demodonkey]

16. Long Term Care is a terrible crisis, and this pisses me off for reasons I can't explain.

I am giving this a K & R because Long Term Care is an essential part of healthcare that nobody ever thinks about until someone in their family becomes disabled (which can happen at ANY age.) If you get that stroke, spinal cord injury, Parkinsons's or whatever, and you don't have any Long Term Care, you might as well have NO healthcare at all because sooner or later (probably sooner) your healthcare needs will NOT be met.

So.... While I am glad she recognizes that there is a problem, but Teresa Heinz Kerry has all this money and all she can come up with about this is a fucking WEBSITE? Whoopdie-do.

My mother needs help and long ago I found all those links from her website on my own (Agency on Aging, etc.) and none are any help if you are too "rich" to qualify for Medicaid waiver (even by a few dollars) but can't afford to hire full-time help. It seems there is no middle ground and as usual the middle class is screwn. I am sure Teresa and John will get whatever help they need when the time comes (in addition to her money, Senators get a GREAT long-term care package) but the rest of us can go to a fucking WEBSITE??

HR 676 -- John Conyers' single-payer bill -- is the ONLY healthcare proposal that would meaningfully cover this urgent need. Insurance is NOT the answer.

[karynnj]

17. Teresa Kerry has done more than just

set up a website. She and her co-author, who had been Senator Heinz's chief of staff have lobbied for change on things like women's pensions.

A long time ago, looking for something else in the record, I found this mentioning her work on the women's pension rights' legislation.

Mr. KERRY. Mr. President, I rise today to express my support for the Women's Pension Equity Act of 1996, and to thank Senator Moseley-Braun and Senators Mikulski, Murray, Boxer, and Feinstein for their leadership on this important issue.

Mr. President, women are five times as likely to live out their final years below the poverty line. Research also indicates that almost 80 percent of widows living in poverty were not poor because their husbands died--while the same is not generally true of men, according to the General Accounting Office.

I am proud to say that my wife, Teresa Heinz, contributed important work toward this bill. In April, she sponsored a conference in Boston entitled `Women, Widows, and Pensions--The Unfinished Agenda.' Senator Moseley-Braun was the keynote speaker and I believe many of the insights from the conference contributed to this bill.

But I also want to highlight a letter from a woman named Marian from Attleboro, MA. She wrote me recently that she just turned 81 years old and worked from 1934 to 1994. Because of family responsibilities, she had to take a total of 7 years off from work to raise her children. She said that since her various jobs paid less than what a man would make, she now receives a worker's benefit that is less than one-half the benefit that was earned by her husband when he was alive.

Mr. President, current pension laws do not take into account the circumstances of women in the work force. This bill takes an important step toward correcting pension inequities and helps to redress the overwhelming poverty suffered by older women.

The bill would require the IRS to create a model form for spousal consent for survivor annuities so that couples understand the consequences of taking a larger annuity during the husband's life and giving up the survivor annuity. The bill would also require the Department of Labor to create a model order so divorced spouses get the pensions they deserve.

Ultimately, we need fundamental reforms to address these pressing issues. Fewer women than men receive pensions and they receive less because they have fewer years in the work force: the average woman spends 11.5 years out of the work force largely due to greater time spent in nonpaying caregiving roles. Additionally, women earn less than men and are more likely to change jobs frequently and be affected by lack of pension portability and high vesting hurdles.

But, Mr. President, along with the President's recent pension initiative the Retirement Savings and Security Act, this bill will move toward a day when the laws governing our Nation's pension system are truly gender neutral and older women are not faced with living their final years in poverty.

Teresa Kerry is not an elected official - but, it is through things like the conference her proud husband mentioned here, and the annual conferences that she has done on women's health for at least the last dozen years, that she has had an effect. I read the live blogging on one of these conferences and what is clear is that they have brought together really smart people working on these issues in a setting where their interaction is likely to result in all benefiting from the suggestions of others. In addition, her foundation has provided some direct funding for clinics in undeserved areas. (Not to mention, on green building, she led by example, hiring Bill McDonough, who has gone on to be a (or even the) leading Green builder, to build a green office for her in Pittsburgh. She also funded many green projects.)

No one said that Teresa solved the problem by co-writing on op-ed or by putting up the website with the information that her staff had. This website could be helpful to people with fewer internet skills than you have and finding good sources of information on anything is not trivial. Your attack on her, personally, is unjustified. Her foundation does help people, but this is no way that she has the money to fix this problem herself. If Teresa and John Kerry did not care to work for solutions, they could be off living the most privileged lives on the planet.

It is true that the Kerrys will have more than adequate resources, but so will Conyers, Kucinich and many other people who you are not attacking.

[demodonkey]

18. I guess you have not had to deal with a personal long term care crisis, as I have...

...if you did, maybe you would have a clue.

Maybe if you had been to dozens of websites and made literally hundreds of phone calls to get help with long term care for a suddenly disabled family member (to no avail) you would understand how the real world is for real people who aren't millionaires. Maybe you would see why I find your post totally ignorant -- blaming me for "attacking" a multi-millionaire who "helps" the situation by putting up a website.

And just maybe if you had to take care of a disabled family member 24/7 alone with no help you would "get it" why it is not OK for you to protect Teresa Heinz Kerry by ATTACKING ME for posting my feelings on the long-term care crisis.

Once again, John Conyers' HR 676 definitely WOULD solve the long-term care problem. Does Kerry support it? Has he introduced a Senate clone? If John Kerry would simply support comprehensive single-payer legislation (that includes long term care for the disabled) in the US Senate it would do ten-thousand times more to solve this crisis than all the websites and books and foundations he and his wife have ever come up with.

So where is Kerry's bill to provide comprehensive health care for ALL including long term care for the disabled?

Hmmmmm???

[politicasista]

19. kick n/t