October 14, 2003
AN AWFUL IDEA:
House and Senate Weigh Co-Payment for Care at Home (ROBERT PEAR, October 14, 2003, NY Times)
House and Senate negotiators working on Medicare legislation say they are seriously considering imposing a co-payment on home health care, one of the few Medicare benefits for which patients do not have to pay such charges.Congress eliminated the co-payment in 1972 in an effort to encourage the use of home care as an alternative to nursing homes and hospitals, which are generally more expensive.
Just four days remain before a Friday deadline suggested by Republican leaders of Congress for completing work on the legislation, which would revamp Medicare and add prescription drug benefits, at an estimated cost of $400 billion over 10 years.
Talk about counterproductive: instead the government should stop subsidizing any nursing home care at all. Old folks should stay in their families' homes. Posted by Orrin Judd at October 14, 2003 8:04 AM
While that seems like a kinder, gentler way of doing things, if either of my grandmothers had lived with my parents, I'd be an orphan right now. On the other hand, my husband's family took in two invalid grandparents and cared for them until their deaths. Their mantra after that experience is: "if I ever get that way, kill me or put me in a home."
Posted by: NKR at October 14, 2003 9:55 AMYes, but do they ever say they'll pay for the home, or do they want the government to pay?
Posted by: OJ at October 14, 2003 11:27 AMMy mother can afford to pay for a nursing home easily, hell she would save money comapred to her current arrangements. And I have been so looking forward to the day I put her in one.
Posted by: Robert Schwartz at October 14, 2003 1:29 PM