As you follow this series of negotiations with health care providers on behalf of a legally blind man with congestive heart failure, remember that more than sixty percent of us will spend some time in a nursing home if we’re lucky enough to reach sixty-five years of age. This is a portrait of life in the United States at rock bottom – no income, no savings, and no family other than an ex-wife to whom our patient was last married in 1989.

In case you do not personally know someone who is dependent upon Medicare and whose circumstances could be severely impacted by the current federal budget negotiations, now you do.

Is there any chance your story will end where Joel’s does? Do you believe you’ll be able to afford Blue Cross premiums forever? Or that Blue Cross, or another health insurance provider will pay for skilled nursing facilities as long as you need them?

If you are a woman nearing retirement, the possibility that you will age in comfort is far less likely than the chance you will live out your final years in poverty. Presently, the U.S. poverty rate for people 65 and over is 9.7 percent — that’s 3.5 million people who, if they are single, are living on less than $10,289 a year. Two-thirds of women over age 65 rely on Social Security as their primary source of income. Consequently, women are twice as likely as men to live out their golden years at or below poverty levels.

So, yes, this story is about negotiating with health care bureaucracies, but it is also about the way in which the richest country in the world treats the weakest members of the human family, family members who could well be us.

Continue reading here (which is also where all the links are)