Why Grandma Will Be At The Door, Suitcase In Hand

from DailyKos:

Why Grandma Will Be At The Door, Suitcase In Hand
by Julie Gulden .


Republicans are taking it on the chin for trying to dismantle Medicare. Wait til the public realizes that Medicaid, which they are also trying to tear apart, is what makes it possible for Grandma to stay in a nursing home. Roughly 70% of nursing home residents are on Medicaid. I'm betting that many of you have a parent, grandparent, uncle or aunt who is in a nursing home and the cost is being paid by Medicaid.
http://www.wsws.org/...


Medicaid serves low-income children, pregnant women, the elderly, blind and disabled—an enormous but politically disenfranchised segment of the population. Currently, some 60 million Americans receive health care through the program, including one in three children, four in ten pregnant women, and 70 percent of nursing home residents.

Average Cost of a Nursing Home Room Tops $83,000 a Year

Nursing home and assisted living rates rose significantly from 2009 to 2010, according to the 2010 MetLife Market Survey of Long-Term Care Costs. Private room nursing home rates rose 4.6 percent to $83,585 a year or $229 a day, while assisted living facility costs climbed 5.2 percent on average to $39,516 a year or $3,293 a month.

$148,579 is what the AVERAGE 65 year old (and older) 401K account is...but some very high earners tilt that number to the high side. The median is more accurate in that 50% have more and 50% have less. The median number is $60,800. This is the point at which you gasp and start caculating Grandma's assets. Does she own a home? Hope so! Because she can't last even a full year in a nursing home on that $60,800. Typically, Grandma could move in to the nursing home, spend down her savings, and when most of it was used up, in comes Medicaid to save the day.

What have I been saying over and over since it was revealed that the Ryan plan contained the end of both MEDICARE AND MEDICAID?

That folks need to just start talking to people wherever they are. Ask them if they know someone who is in a nursing home. Hell, stand outside of nursing homes on the weekend, and ask those going inside to visit:

DO YOU HAVE THE MONEY TO PAY FOR GRANDMA AND GRANDPA TO STAY HERE?

If the answer is no, then tell them they have no business voting Republican.

The Democrats needs to stop being afraid of Medicaid. Their stupid asses let the GOP demagogue MEDICAID to where the ' face' of Medicaid is someone poor and their children, when, in fact, the FACE of Medicaid, in terms of dollars, should be that WHITE SENIOR CITIZEN, who more than likely has sheltered their assets so that their kids can put them in the nursing home using MEDICAID DOLLARS.

And, THAT, is who needs to become the posterchild for MEDICAID.