Big Pharma, Big Insurance And The Extreme Right Want Us All Dead-Left or Right

That's right, dead.  Because you're a hassle to keep alive due to your overwhelming expense.  Due to the fact that there are so many closed door, behind-the-scenes, zero transparency deals between the drug and insurance companies; due to the fact that making good care only available to the wealthy is the prime incentive of the Tea Partyers in Congress, who want everyone to "pull themselves up by their bootstraps" and if they could would cease to cover anyone's health care.  Except their own, of course, which happens to be the most all-encompassing, best-priced, health plan available in this country.  Of course, it makes perfect sense that they've made this level of plan available to themselves.  After all, we put them there, didn't we?...

How many of you are denied the level of care you know you need and just as importantly, deserve, by your own insurance plans that you pay through the nose for?  Yearly changes in what they're willing to cover just means confusion and fear for their consumers.  And after all, in the end, aren't we all just customers?  Don't we have some kind of the consumer oversight group?  FDA, FTC, you say?  Yeah, right...

How often are you told that the medicine you know works best for you isn't on the "preferred" list by your insurance company?   In my case, I had already, at their request, tried a different drug than the one prescribed by my own doctor, but they didn't care.  The drug they wanted me to take didn't work for me, but they were pushing this drug, not that drug, and that was that. In the same breath they told me that it's over $1500 a month (or more) to get just one tube of the drug that actually helps me.   That's health care? I don't care if you've got psoriasis, MS, or tennis elbow...can't we do better than that?

Think I'm exaggerating?  Look into it for yourselves.  Every time I have to jump into these issues for my family or myself, I feel like I'm staring down into a dark well that I can't see the bottom of.  And I'm the stone that I just dropped down into it, and I can't even hear anything when, or even if, I land...

Cognition, Medical Costs and Sex

Back from an extended summer vacation, and during that (much needed) time away I made a few notes about some things that caught my attention:

•On July 18th, the New York Times wrote this post as a kind of lead-in to it's front page article of the same day, and it's well worth reading When You Know There’s Something Wrong. The Times reports that scientists are beginning to take seriously accounts of forgetfulness and cognitive problems in patients without obvious signs of dementia. Some are calling for recognition of “subjective cognitive decline,” a stage in which people sense that they are slipping long before others have noticed and even before cognitive testing can measure it... 

•Elisabeth Rosenthal, a terrific and well-informed writer, wrote in the August 3rd edition of the New York Times: "As the United States struggles to rein in its growing $2.7 trillion health care bill, the cost of medical devices like joint implants and pacemakers offers a cautionary tale. Like many medical products or procedures, they cost far more in the United States than in many other developed countries."  Cautionary tale is right.  Would the burgeoning "medical travel" industry (where people go to other countries for procedures that are far, far less expensive than here in the United States) even exist if we had a fair, equitable and controlled health care system?  I doubt it...

• Eldercare is the least sexy subject in the world.  The only thing that's less sexy is to contemplate the idea of your parent's having sex.   The following item, by Brian Gruley of Bloomberg News, comes as no surprise: "Boomer sex is expected to be an issue for elder-care homes. Recently, a nurse at the Hebrew Home in Riverdale, N.Y. saw two elderly people having sex in a room and asked Daniel A. Reingold, then the home's executive vice president, what she should do.  'Tiptoe out and close the door so you don't disturb them,' he told her."  Why does it seem surprising to so many that elderly people, particularly those still in reasonable health, still have sexual desires?  Sex is healthful (and fun) at any age, seniors included...

See my latest video and more on my website at http://www.jamielegon.com

Quality of Life et al.

After returning from my latest doctor visit, and living as I do amongst a large population of senior citizens, I was reminded once again that life without real quality of life isn't life at all – just a fading respiration process as we wind down into our terrestrial escape... 

The formula to delay the onset of problems caused by advanced aging is well known: proper sleep,  eating a Mediterranean diet, and exercising 4-5 days a week are the beginning of the equation, but it turns out that work and career are the glue that help tie it all together.  Exercising the mind is as important as exercising the body, and studies now show that working past retirement age slows, if not prevents, the onset of dementia...

As my father spiraled down the long road of dementia, he became angry and aggressive, a problem often compounded by the fact that he was getting urinary tract infections that made him act like an absolute lunatic.  Read Paula Span's (NY Times) New Old Age post "When Aggression Follows Dementia" at http://nyti.ms/13V9vVj  It's a common problem...

My father's dementia was worsened by the fact that he had macular degeneration, making him think that he was seeing writing on the walls.  When an elderly person of advanced age can see and hear, they feel that they're still here, still in the world.  Quality of life isn't a sexy subject, but in this writer's view, it's the only one that really counts...

Here are some more organizations to know about.  Visit my Resources page at http://bit.ly/12Pb695
to find many more...

Children of Aging Parents  http://www.caps4caregivers.org  Children of Aging Parents is a non-profit charitable organization whose mission is to assist caregivers... 

Association for Macular Diseases  http://www.macula.org  Like audiology and hearing loss, there's not enough attention paid to quality of life issues...

Experience Works http://www.experienceworks.org Experience Works is one of the nation’s leading nonprofit providers of training and job services for adults, aged 55 and over... 

LivHome.com http://livhome.com/  LivHome is one of the largest providers of professionally led at-home care for seniors... 

Aging Well Means Good Management

If you're one of the very few, very lucky, babyboomers without medical challenges, please accept my sincerest congratulations.   But if, like me, you're one of the vast majority of seniors with health issues who sometimes think (don't we all?) that you're a little unlucky, just consider the alternative.  I know a lot of people who never got the chance to get aches and pains...

A friend of mine, 79 and a lifelong athlete, was recently diagnosed with macular degeneration.  He didn't even blink (no pun intended), and only talked about what he had to do to continue living life as he always has.  He's a pretty vibrant guy, tall and muscular, and I'm pretty sure he could kick my ass in spite of being 20 years older than me.  He was already making transportation arrangements "just in case" he couldn't comfortably drive anymore.  He wasn't gonna wait until the worst might happen.  I wanna be like him when I grow up...

Another friend, almost 65 years old, finally had to have a troublesome knee replaced.  Never much of an athlete, he's still going to the gym every day to rehabilitate the knee.  "It would have been easy to hobble through the rest of my life with a cane, but the hell with that!." he said.  He's no gym rat – he's just another person who's voted for quality of life...

I've often heard it said that the day you don't want to drag yourself to the gym is the one day that you've got to go.  Regular exercise, both aerobic and weight-bearing, is the only way to maintain muscle mass, strengthen waning stability, and stave off aging.  Along with diet and sleep, exercise is the critical component in managing your aging body.  Don't want to have to use a cane?  Go to the gym...

And speaking of ego, if you're not used to needing help, then swallow some of that long-held pride and let friends and family give a helping hand.  It's all about common sense – and good management...

Chinese Love (and Law)

In the NY Times blog The New Old Age, there was a post yesterday about laws recently enacted in China, mandating that the children of aged parents visit at least a certain number of times and stay informed about the status of their parent's well-being.  The law also says that the children need to be responsive to "the spiritual needs of the elderly", and that punitive measures await  those who don't comply.  I'd written about this myself (The No Responsibility Zone) and at that time I imagined businesses springing up overnight to represent the adult children of the very aged, much like talent agencies do in Hollywood.  They'd threaten the parents with: “Listen, if you want to have direct negotiations with your kids, you’ll have to bequeath them an extra ten percent…in advance."

It's barely a joke... 

Are legal remedies the only way to insure that people oversee the care of their aging parents?  China made it plain that they think so, and enacted laws that obligate adult children to be involved in the care of their parents.  Past generations used to routinely take responsibility for the elderly.  Grandma or Grandpa lived with you, and though it was sometimes a bit of a strain, you didn't think twice about it.  It was just something you did – the normal course of business – before nursing homes became an industry, and a good investment for cut-the-corners profiteers. 

Read The New York Times blog on aging issues, The New Old Age, at: http://newoldage.blogs.nytimes.com/

Read my blog about China's new laws in "The No-Responsibility Zone" at http://jamielegon.blogspot.com/ and see more posts at jamielegon.com

Things To Come

It's getting harder and harder to read the news without becoming depressed.  While the general population is quickly aging before our collective eyes – mainly due to improved medical care and health habits – the punitive aspect of growing old without any safety net is growing exponentially.  Just this week, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that because of budgetary considerations decided on and passed by the California legislature back in 2011, organizations that accept Medi-Cal disbursements from the government are going to be hit with millions of dollars in payments retroactive to past years.  As an example, the Jewish Home of San Francisco, a venerable institution that supplies care to the aged, is, because it relies on Medi-Cal payments to stay afloat, going to be hit with an 11 million dollar payment for 2011 alone, simply because it accepts Medi-Cal disbursements!  These Medi-Cal payments are the only lifeline for many elderly people without means.  This is insane, and says much that is negative about our society, one in which rich people come first and foremost...

I'm not rich (or even close), and I have to admit that I'm greatly worried about my old age.  We Americans have always prided ourselves as living in the greatest country in the world, but I'm afraid that's just not the case, my friends.  We are shooting ourselves in the foot, unable or unwilling to recognize that one of those famous "inalienable rights" ought to provide senior citizens with respectable old-age care.  Various European countries have figured this out, but apparently we can't.  In America's profit-is-all-that-counts system, the powers that be (and we are to blame for electing them) just figure, "What the hell – let's just let all those poor, old people drop dead!  It's so much easier that way!"

If you're old, and without money, make no mistake: you are in serious trouble.  Count me as one of them...

Death is a Natural Part of Life (and it's okay to talk about it)

Paula Span, who writes for the New York Times blog, The New Old Age, published a blog post the other day about groups, called Death Cafes, springing up all over the country that meet, not for end-of-life planning or grief support, but rather to discuss death philosophically:Why do we fear it?  What do we think it's like?  And maybe most importantly, how does our view of death inform the way we go about living our lives?

I read some years ago about the various café mortel (mortal cafe) that were being started in France and Switzerland for people to discuss their philosophies about death, and these groups in the U.S. are offshoots of that same basic idea.  Ms. Span's blog post is, I think, important reading for just about anybody, if for no other reason than that the subject of death, much like eldercare, is so completely taboo and riddled with superstition.  People often feel that talking about death invites it closer, just like my parents, who thought that if they even made out a will they'd keel over and die right on the spot.  I think these are necessary forums – necessary because death, like taxes, is inevitable.   It seems to me that when we confront the subjects that we're most afraid of, they take on less of a sinister overtone.  People have often said to me that, since death is inevitable, why talk about it?  I respond by saying that since it's inevitable, why not demystify it and explore our thoughts and feeling about it?

For me, this brings up what I consider to be the bigger issue: quality-of-life.  In this blogger's view, our society, because of equal parts guilt and liability, often extends people's lives far beyond any reasonable bounds.  Maybe groups like the Death Cafe will allow people to talk about death in a way that isn't superstitious, and allow us to look at death as a natural cessation of life function, particularly in cases where the lack of a real quality-of-life makes life not...well...life anymore.

Read Ms. Span's piece at: http://newoldage.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/16/death-be-not-decaffeinated-over-cup-groups-face-taboo/  and follow this and other resources at www.jamielegon.com/resources