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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsFrom Kos: The Best Single Statement Ever On GOP "Healthcare" - Devastating
Dear Mom,
You won't comprehend this because you have Stage 6 Dementia, but things need to change. The nice congressmen in Washington want to free us from government dependency so we can make better healthcare choices without the stigma of taking handouts from society.
So, Mom, about your Medicaid Aged and Disabled Waiver that pays me a 40 hr/week pittance to care for you at home 24/7: the new HHS Secretary and Medicaid Chief sent our Governor a letter that says people on Medicaid should seek employment if they want to keep those benefits. This may sound unfair considering you're 89, bladder and bowel incontinent, unable to walk unassisted, and often lapse into episodes of uncontrollable whimpering, but if the government decides it's for the best, we'll all need to buck up and contribute our fair share. After all, your 50 year nursing career doesn't necessarily entitle you to a free ride.
I'll probably need to get a "real" job too, because I exploit the system. Never mind that your care would cost the state $78,000 annually in a nursing home versus the $16,000 it pays me; leave the math to those smart fellas in Washington who understand that big government should stop controlling our lives. The important thing is we'll have freedom to choose, and not impose an unfair tax burden on millionaires and the medical industrial complex.
Once I stop taking handouts, I won't be home with you. We should bolster the economy by hiring attendant care, but it costs more than I can earn, and Medicare won't cover it because those warmhearted legislators support family values like looking after our own. You'll enjoy being home alone all day, Mom. You don't really need regular meals or clean Depends, and when you have one of your falls, you can rest quietly on the floor in a puddle of urine until I get off work. Those dear congressmen give us other options, too, such as permanently placing you in a facility to die more quickly and efficiently. Here's another choice: I could stay home and attend you for free! We'll do fine on your Social Security income by sacrificing a few luxuries like groceries, property taxes, electricity, and the car.
There's a bonus, Mom. I won't be forced to maintain health insurance! Remember Obamacare that saved my life through early cancer screening? The Republicans devised a better plan. Because I'm over 50 and earn $150 per year above the Medicaid cutoff, my annual premium will increase by roughly $6,000, but I can choose to opt out! I'll still have "access but not be victimized by the enslaving tax subsidy that let me afford coverage for the first time in 25 years. I'm excited about returning to indigent emergency room treatment and boosting insurance industry profits while taxpayers shoulder the cost instead.
With so many great options it's hard to decide, but here's our new plan, Mom. Under Trumpcare, I'll "choose" to lose health coverage, seek a minimum wage job, and dump you in a nursing home. Between the cost of facility care, a couple of ER visits and perhaps one minor surgery for me per year, and the food stamps and heating assistance I'll need once you and your Social Security income leave the household, I estimate we will save the government roughly NEGATIVE $350,000 over the next 5 years! Multiply that by the millions of people who will lose coverage, and you can appreciate what a sensible and economical plan the Republicans have devised.
You'll be proud to receive depersonalized institutional care instead of burdening society in comfort with your family. The facility gets your Social Security check, and Medicare/Medicaid will cover the balance until you hit the newly proposed block grant funding cap. If you're still alive then, we're unsure what will happen, but we can trust Congress to do what's right. I hear they're formulating a plan to ship the poor, elderly, and chronically ill to arctic ice floes. It's called Trump Tower North: the Last Resort. You might even get to see polar bears before they become extinct! Won't that be fun?
I'm so happy that the government wants to stop interfering in our lives.
Love,
Your Freeloading Daughter
P.S. Mom, if you do need a job to keep that Medicaid, I thought of a placement for someone who can't function productively, has no grasp of reality, and relies on government entitlements. 435 congressional seats will open up next year. You appear to be perfectly qualified.
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/3/24/1646735/-Dear-Mom-About-your-50-year-nursing-career-Medicaid-Woman-s-post-will-blow-GOP-minds
Dustlawyer
(10,497 posts)Get thee to the Greatest page!
democrank
(11,100 posts)So heartbreaking
dembotoz
(16,826 posts)thankfully no dementia
exboyfil
(17,865 posts)and convicted for elder abuse. Filial responsibility laws dictate she pay for the care. Mom comes home after running out of the Medicaid block grant.
Well at least the woman will have free health care in prison.
Doreen
(11,686 posts)not be needed. Now, that cane she can not pay for you are right. But she will not be bored in prison because it will be very full with other women used for free labor. They will think of something for her to do.
Augiedog
(2,548 posts)hatrack
(59,592 posts)Not the author - and can't even begin to imagine what she's going through.
Glad to share, though!
Augiedog
(2,548 posts)woundedkarma
(498 posts)My sister wanted to vote for Trump (couldn't get out to vote, see below)
My sister couldn't wait for Obamacare to be repealed.
Thing is, my sister is caring for my severely brain damaged brother who is on medicaid. All her income comes from taking care of him. For various reasons, she's lost any and all help from me, I won't even talk to her.
I'm glad this pos trump is on his way out but it makes me sad that my sister doesn't get to experience the horror she was hoping for as trumpcare has little chance of passing.
still_one
(92,369 posts)bet on it
NNadir
(33,541 posts)...who are not your sister.
We might all wish for a bit of schadenfreude but I'm personally glad your sister won't pay for her sins because many innocent people will be spared paying for your sister's sins.
SCVDem
(5,103 posts)It's also known as the 'Unassisted Suicide Bill'.
Doreen
(11,686 posts)The damn repukes are the ones who vote against that only because they will lose out on the money they would get if they make a person live in excruciating pain and total lack of dignity.
BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)It's to make them appear to be Human Beings who support Life. As if they had a milligram of decency.
That's what CONservative morality is all about. Pretense and pandering. Pander to the base, who themselves pander to gawd, by obeying their pastor, who panders to his minister, who's best friends with gawd and brings in a lot of money to keep on pretending and pandering to his friends in high places.
Or something....the circle jerk got me confused.
erronis
(15,328 posts)The Drump is no more a repuglican than a charlatan with no tricks and no charm.
He'll be gone soon and we'll still be left with the worms that are trying to kill this country. Let's hoist this abomination on the group that deserves the results. Every rep'uglican that votes for the hurtful assault against the ethical values of real people should be shamed, mocked, and sent back into their little man caves.
Augiedog
(2,548 posts)crazylikafox
(2,760 posts)Beartracks
(12,821 posts)WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)mnhtnbb
(31,401 posts)Brilliantly done.
LittleGirl
(8,290 posts)if you've ever seen something like that. ugh. Poor woman.
malaise
(269,157 posts)Rec
My mother passed away this past January after a short fight with Dementia. Because she had resources we were able to get her care at a very good assisted living facility. During the last 4 months of her life she required Hospice care which was done along side the care she was already receiving. The bill for hospice care was $6000.00 each month and was completely covered through her insurance because of Medicare. I have come to realuze that the Republicans particularly Paul Ryan and the Freedom Caucus just don't care about people like my mother or for that matter people in general. If you aren't rich then you do not matter. I am so glad my mother did not live to see what has happened to our healthcare system as she spent 50 years of her life as a healthcare professional.
WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)flying_wahini
(6,641 posts)That's why it's better to get your hospice benefits started earlier, rather than later.
Providing the patient and family understands the rules/ program.
bpj62
(999 posts)It didnt change. Her decline had accelerated from September to October so the Hospice people come in and do a evaluation. She was clearly at the Hospice stage and her decline continued to accelerate. It is true that it goes from months to weeks to days and then to hours.
If I am correct it started at the end of October. My mother passed on January 20th so she would have been under the 100 days. I was counting the months.
BSdetect
(8,998 posts)Its really mind boggling that so many people are ignorant about health care laws.
Science is supported by tax payers. Medicine is a common good.
Stop murdering the poor.
zentrum
(9,865 posts)...the nursing home is a private business and allows the donors to Republican candidates to make profit off your mom! So see? She's not entirely useless. And when she's finally gone, we're working on a bill to harvest the gold from her teeth. It's all good.
NewRedDawn
(790 posts)forget help with food stamps & heating assistance because of Trump-Ryan's skinny budget.
phylny
(8,385 posts)Love the P.S. "P.S. Mom, if you do need a job to keep that Medicaid, I thought of a placement for someone who can't function productively, has no grasp of reality, and relies on government entitlements. 435 congressional seats will open up next year. You appear to be perfectly qualified."
Beartracks
(12,821 posts)Kimchijeon
(1,606 posts)K&R
ananda
(28,873 posts)That was so moving!
FakeNoose
(32,720 posts)My own family is facing this situation. One sister has given up her work career and social life - everything really - to provide 24/7 care for another sister with dementia.
If it weren't for the disability money from the government, there would be no possibility of home care for my disabled sister. She'd have to be in a nursing home and she'd have to be completely on Medicaid, until that gets cancelled too.
How do these billionaires in congress even understand this type of sacrifice?
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)in the future.
I hope the tar and pitchforks come out.
keepthemhonestO
(252 posts)for sharing,
I just plastered where ever I could just now, so it gets seen today. She really plowed them.
Doreen
(11,686 posts)I would start taking bets on how long after they take ACA and Medicaid away how long it will be before they take Medicare away along with Soc-Sec.
joanbarnes
(1,723 posts)WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(108,157 posts)deek
(3,414 posts)I, too, take care of my multiply severely disabled adult daughter with medical issues full-time through the use of CA's In-Home-Supportive Services. The alternatives to keeping her at home where she belongs are unacceptable.
My stomach is in knots.
brer cat
(24,592 posts)You don't need the stress of republican "don't care" policies on top of your demanding responsibilities. We must fight on to save all that we can.
mountain grammy
(26,644 posts)SunSeeker
(51,659 posts)BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)niyad
(113,527 posts)pansypoo53219
(20,987 posts)more taxes they can afford to help their fellow man.god forbid they share THEIR money w/ the struggling.
trueblue2007
(17,237 posts)miyazaki
(2,248 posts)criminal inmates to old folks homes, and the old folks to prison, where they'll receive free health care, meals, a bed, and plenty of personal attention. The inmates in their new homes would be subjected to cruel and unusual punishment, so it could never happen.
blue neen
(12,327 posts)This story should be required reading for every Congress-person and every Senator.
chillfactor
(7,580 posts)I shared this with several people.
MFM008
(19,818 posts)The Ayn Rand true believers think
weak people are not capable of production or participation so you are useless.
You shouldn't have food, care, a roof, NOTHING from the government.
If the state chooses to take the money congress gives them and spend it on
you--- fine, If they spend it on a road--- fine.
They have nothing but barely disguised contempt for nearly all who make
less than a hundred thousand$$
90 percent of republicans would be delighted that "weak" people die.
Jarqui
(10,130 posts)Since at least the early days of Bill Clinton, when Hillary took up the healthcare issue, the GOP have always maintained they have the answers. After years of ripping Obamacare with nonsense like death panels and voting to repeal it many times - 62 by the beginning of 2016:
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/obamacare-repeal-dead-enders-refuse-move
What was so striking with this recent attempt is that it was so hastily put together that it handily reeked as an awful bill that had not been thought out and their president couldn't debate it because he doesn't understand the issues or details.
At least they evolved from 2010
to have something on paper.
For all their bluster over two decades, they effectively offered America nothing in terms of a legitimate healthcare solution.
I do not understand why these insincere, dishonest clowns get votes.