First, I would appreciate if readers could first take the time to read Peter Schaufele's article about his father. Then you can come back to this post if you want.
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I spotted Schaufele's article in a review devoted to things diplomatic, but I realize that although his father was an accomplished career Foreign Service Officer and eventual ambassador, this story has little to do with foreign affairs. That's okay, because I can also relate to his predicament thanks to my own parents' final years.
In my parents' case, they had just sold their little retirement house in South Florida when my mother suffered a serious stroke. The stroke came when my parents were visiting us in suburban Washington, and our battles with their Florida Medicare HMO were covered in "The HMO Maze: How Medicare Fails Seniors" in the Ft. Lauderdale Sun Sentinel.
This five-part series exposed scores of patient deaths and injuries allegedly caused by HMOs for the elderly that scrimped on providing health care to members; it also disclosed financial irregularities that have cost taxpayers millions of dollars. The series won the 1993 George Polk Award for medical writing and the 1994 Gerald Loeb Award, a top business journalism award. Schulte put U.S. Department of Health and Human Services HMO complaint data to good use for this series.
According to a chronicler of legendary muckrakers, "journalists Fred Schulte and Jenni Bergal inspired more state legislative reforms than some Florida lawmakers themselves." In our case, the only good guys - who eventually forced the HMO to fulfill its Medicare responsibilities - were the HHS regional watchdogs.
My parents had already decided to move in with my sister and brother-in-law, who had prepared a "granny flat" in their house. So there they were, my mother released from hospital, with only their savings from a lifetime of manual labor, plus the proceeds from the sale of their house. Like Peter Schaufele's parents, not rich by any means, but with some available cash.
My mother lived for some six more years, unable to walk, and needed assistance for "activities of daily living." For that, my father - himself in his eighties - needed help, and hired home nursing aides. By the time my mother died, he had pretty much depleted all his savings. But at least my parents had been able to remain in their daughter's home.
Dad tried living with us overseas after Mom died, but returned to the States and settled into an assisted living facility. Luckily, through a similar combination of Medicaid and his children chipping in, we were able to "manage." Unlike Peter Schaufele's father, Dad stayed in relative good health until his last months of life.
I share Peter Schaufele's rage, however, when I contemplate the cavalier attitude of those politicians who just don't get it. Those who think that being without health insurance is easy, "just walk into a hospital emergency room," as George W. Bush recently put it. Or those (often the same crew) who, not content with the current $2,000,000 estate tax exclusion (or even the $3.5 million "compromise" proposal), want to shield all inherited wealth from the dreaded "death tax." Only the 0.5% of Americans whose wealth exceeds this can find the time to worry about such niceties. The rest are like Peter Schaufele, wondering whether they too will one day have to sell everything just to stay off the street.