What if I outlive my money?

[897tgigvib]

Those words keep flashing on my screen.

My mind automatically answers...
Then you'd be like the rest of us of course.

I outlive my money almost every month, not counting several small emergency spare stashes of it, including cans of change, dollar bills plopped in a drawer, and at least that bank required minimum 40 bucks in the account there.

Why would they ask that silly question?

mumbles...what if i outlive my money...ole guy hmmmphs.

 

[Stubbornhillfarm]

As far as I can tell I already have. I don't think money was ever alive.

 

[baymule]

Haha, that's what my mom is scared to death about. Gheesh! She is 90! Unless she gets real bad off and needs 24 hour care and goes into a nursing home, I think she will have more than plenty for whatever she wants. She fell and fractured her pelvis a while back and I was up and down all night and day. After a few weeks of that, I was a zombie. I know now that if she needs a lot of care that I am not able to do it all. Nursing homes around here cost about $6000 or more a month. At that rate, she could easily outlive her money. Then once the nursing home ate it all up, she would go on Medicaid like all the other poor people. Medicaid requirements are less than $2000 in cash. You can keep your car if it is old, but if you are in a nursing home, where are you going to go anyway? If you have a house, the state will seize it.

Outlive your money? The only way to win at this game is be stone broke, poor and homeless. Or to be mega-wealthy. Middle class people that have struggled to save up a little like my Mom are just screwed.

 

[bj taylor]

our healthcare system is the big scary bear in the room for so many people. we should have real/honest health care reform - not this bureaucracy we're heading into starting next year. the govt can't do Marshall justice as a vet with his healthcare - but they seem to think with the rest of us, they'll do a better job.

I agree w/you bay. it's the middle class that doesn't have a chance. that's why the middle class is becoming extinct.

 

[seedcorn]

Until politicians are forced to live by common people standards, nothing will change. Once elected, they have gold parachute. I know people that have given all their assets to heirs so no one can get it

 

[897tgigvib]

Oh yea, if politicians were all paid minimum wage you can betcher prolapsed vent there'd be different laws passed. There'd soon also be different folks wanting to run for offices.

President=10.75 an hour, 20 hours ot a week max allowed
same for the whole cabinet, vp, all of them
Personal secretaries can be added to payroll, also 10.75 an hour

Same for all the congress and senate
governors, state legislators, assembly members, county supervisors, mayors, town council members, all whatever they want to be called like that, elected dog catchers

Heck, let the street sweepers, not elected, make more than their politician bosses!

If you get your gov'mint job by election you make 10.75 an hour, and too bad.

and put it into the constitution too!!! call it the WE THE PEOPLE amendment.

Now, course they have to have certain perks. President gets her or his white house, travel pay, same for senate and others, according to about what they really need. (I can see it now...1st lady looking in the cupboard for the peanut butter at the end of the month. Can't let that happen. White house gets plenty of usda food stamp vouchers.)

Flying to Baltimore, notice that guy over there in seat 14b in standard class seating? That's senator such and so on his way to Washington DC. No more of those "important trips to Tahiti to sign some docier that takes 5 minutes to do but somehow the trip takes 5 days things."

No more 35,000 dollar hammers or 27,000 dollar toilet seats! If discovered, someone gets to make gravel out of rocks manually. Some fired politician.

woops. got onto my mountain man political view!

 

[so lucky]

Our local hospital increases their prices by 8% across the board every July. But they are building a huge multi-million $ addition right now. My medicine for rheumatoid arthritis tripled in price from last month to this month. I was just remarking to DH that it's not going to surprise me when people rise up and revolt against the health care system. As good as a national health care could be, it's too late for that. The best thing we can do is just not get sick, and to use alternative methods to heal and prevent when we have a choice.

 

[Jared77]

Honestly if I outlive my money, then Ill do 1 of 2 things. Move in with one of my kids, or I'll run the hose up from the exhaust pipe, pour myself a real tall glass of whiskey and start up the car and listen to some classic tunes on the radio and take a REAL long nap. I won't be a burden, and for me its about quality of life not the duration of life.

As far as the cost of healthcare goes, its a no win situation. The cost of producing a new medication is astronomical. They have to recoop the cost, plus the cost of producing other medications that fail at some point to make it to market for whatever reason in 20 years. That's the length of a patent for medications. So when a new medication hits the market there's a reason its so expensive.

Is it fair? Someone has to pay for all the research, the clinical hours, the trials, the evaluations. So who shoulders that cost? There is no way around that cost. The Govt. could do drug research but we'd have to increase taxes. The money has to come from somewhere. I hate to see it but that's the cold reality of the medications.

Another problem that many healthcare providers face is making sure we cover all our bases. Why do we run so many tests? Often to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt what the problem is. Otherwise we can be considered negligent and risk a missed diagnosis. For example:

You were sitting on the couch drooling over next years seed catalog and BAM you've got 10/10 excruciating stomach pain with nausea and vomiting. You call 911 and Jared and his ambulance respond to help.

Just off the top of my head it your pain could be caused by and in no particular order:

A heart attack (lethal), abdominal aortic aneurysm (lethal), gallstones, bowel obstruction (constipation), appendicitis, urinary tract infection, ulcers, a hernia, just to name a few. There are plenty more but I hope you get the point.

What do I do? An EKG, a 12 lead EKG, (to give me even more views of your heart and try to rule out a heart attack) oxygen, vital signs and full assessment, (check both arms to see if there is a difference in blood pressures to try to rule out or possibly confirm an abdominal aortic aneurysm) I would give aspirin (unless its a AAA), start an IV, give you at least 1 nitroglycerin if your blood pressure will tolerate it and your blood pressures are real close when comparing L arm to R arm, and to see if your pain is relieved at all by the nitroglycerin which is a test and therapeutic, additional narcotics to reduce your pain not take it away totally but reduce it so the ER Dr can see what your presenting with (if I don't think see a heart attack from the EKGs and the nitro doesn't phase it), and an anti-nausea medication.

That's how I do things. I'm thorough so I can provide an accurate picture to the ER staff, try to find out what the problem is given the tools I have and ease my patients suffering to the best of my ability. I'm the first person with advanced medical training to come into contact with you the patient so its up to me to help paint the most complete and accurate picture I can.

That's all before you even get to the ER.

Then once at the ER, you'll get a bunch of testing done there. Possibly admitted depending on what the findings are.

See how the costs add up quickly? Each one is necessary to rule out or clue us in to what's going on. What do you want us to skip so your possibly miserable or dead?

Then if we miss something, we as providers can be held liable. So we have to keep malpractice insurance which is extremely expensive. So many people practice preventive medicine to be sure they cover all their bases and are not left exposed to legal action. Sometimes its simply the service that carries it but individuals can be held liable as well and receive no protection from their service. For example there was a recent suit in Florida where a woman who was pregnant went to the ER. The facility there realized she had a critical condition and was to be sent to a more advanced facility with the means to treat her. She was transported by ambulance there. Enroute she delivered a premature baby. The Paramedic was able to save the baby's life. The Paramedic among others was personally sued because of the birth defects her baby suffered. The mother won a multi-million dollar settlement.

Medicare and Medicaid have decided what each problem costs. If you have stomach pain the payment for the care is _____. Regardless of how much it costs to treat you, this what they pay. That's it. You can't go after the patient for the difference either, that's illegal. So if the operating costs are $1,000 and Medicaid only pays $600 there's still a $400 shortage that they have to write off. Now multiply that by how many patients a service treats or a facility cares for and you can see the losses getting stacked up high. Plus its illegal to deny care to anybody regardless of their ability to pay. I agree with that policy about ability to pay but again the loses stack up.

That's all fine and dandy but again facilities and services are forced to eat those costs. So the costs are passed on to those who can pay to make up for the losses. That's why some facilities are itemizing each and every single piece of equipment used and are billing for them. Others bill crazy high amounts for certain procedures because they know they'll only get a % of that but its better than nothing.

Other insurance providers also have a fee schedule (which is how much they'll pay for certain procedures just like Medicaid does) but everybody is different so each facility bills what they can, and tries to make it work.

There are a lot of factors that go into the rising cost of healthcare. I don't think Obamacare is the solution either. I think it will help to an extent but its not the magic bullet that many claim it is. In order to fix healthcare we need to look at where the overruns are, rather than throwing more money at it. Being able to work smarter, not by volume. Being able to diagnose a condition without requiring so much additional testing to confirm what we already know the problem is, and that being the acceptable legal standard rather than using it to extract blame and financial gain.

Give a tax break to medical centers that set up urgent cares and staff them wisely giving people an option rather than going to ER for care. I've seen it time and time again. I've even had patients give a ER Dr's name when asked who their primary care physician is. No I'm not kidding. Give a tax break to people who get yearly physicals, and do things like quit smoking, and make other healthy lifestyle changes. Have the Govt make generic prescription medications making them super cheap and put people to work.

This is system that's clearly broken and needs to be fixed. I see it all too often and we've got to change it.

 

[baymule]

LOL Banner ad at bottom of the page, as I am reading what Jared wrote, is for Dementia Care Facility AlzheimersLocator.com

Jared, you are being stalked...... ................unless the computer is watching me and sees my white hair, then I am the one being stalked..... :/

 

[Jared77]

I just saw that and the bottom of my page read 1800ct thread sheets of Egyptian cotton. Maybe I am and its like how they put up "Joe's Plumbing" on the size of the surveillance van?