Elderly Have Their Own Worries On Health Overhaul

[Purveyor]

(08-27) 06:29 PDT Springfield, Va. (AP) --

Turns out you can fear a government takeover of health care even if the government already took over your health care.

How else to explain the reservations of seniors like 85-year-old Dee Jollie, who are covered by Medicare, the government health insurance program for Americans 65 and older, yet still have deep concerns about President Barack Obama's proposed health care overhaul?

"I think it'll be government control," Jollie said this week while waiting for her congressman to hold a health care town hall meeting at her upscale retirement home.

"When that occurs, you don't have any control," Jollie added. "I think we will no longer be able to choose our own doctor," she said — notwithstanding repeated claims to the contrary from Obama, whom she supported for president.

The trepidation that's taken hold among the elderly over Obama's drive to remake the nation's health care system is turning into one more political headache for Democrats as they struggle to reach agreement on sweeping health legislation that can pass the House and Senate after Labor Day.

Older Americans, who vote at a higher rate than other age groups, also hold deeper concerns than others about proposed health care changes, surveys have shown. An ABC/Washington Post poll this month found 45 percent of respondents overall supporting Democrats' proposed health care changes, while just 34 percent of seniors were in support. The elderly use health care services more than others and have perhaps the most to lose and least to gain from any changes in the present system.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/08/27/national/a001426D20.DTL#ixzz0PPCZQC67

[eleny]

1. They love thier gov't health care so much that they don't want to share it

Health care isn't an ice cream cone, dammit.

[liberalhistorian]

2. Translation: We don't want no gubmint health care, but

give us our Medicare, damnit! And we want YOU to pay for it through your taxes even though YOU don't have insurance and can't get needed access to care! Fucking selfish hypocrites.

And if they think that private insurance companies are gonna be any better for them, then I have an igloo on the equator to sell them. Once you hit 45 or so, you're nothing to said companies, they can't get rid of you fast enough and good luck trying to get onto an individual plan or getting hired over 50 since employers don't want older workers to drag down their plans.

Medicare and Medicaid, OTOH, are much better at covering the elderly without all of the bullshit of the private companies. My stepdad's in a nursing home covered by Medicaid, while private insurers would have nothing to do with it. I'll say it again, fucking selfish hypocrites. MY taxes pay for THEIR Medicare and Medicaid but THEY don't want ME and hubby, to have that same benefit. Despite being hard-working and responsible, we don't have insurance now and would have a great deal of trouble finding individual plans due to our ages (40's and 50's), despite being healthy with no history of major or chronic diseases. Apparently we have to wait ten and twenty years to get the same benefits these selfish paranoid hypocritical seniors have THAT WE FUCKING PAY FOR. If we get sick or injured now, we're screwed financially for the rest of our lives no matter how hard we work. Fuckers.

[madrchsod]

3. there`s a concentrated effort to scare the shit out of the elderly and it`s succeeding.

it`s just not the elderly ...there`s plenty of examples right here at the democratic underground.
how many times have you read something here ,commented,and found out later it was`t the truth. read a news story that had 0 creditability but thought it was "true" can we blame the elderly when we are equally guilty?
the racist right wing and the health care industry has done a brilliant job pitting one generation against another. i have spent a lot of time in the doctor and hospital waiting rooms and i understand what these people are going through. i`m just a few more years when i`ll be the same as them.