In my personal life, I find I am being beset with the results of being a baby boomer who is entering the later decades of life and the problems that this presents. Some of you may think instantly, I am talking about illness, and to some extent I am, but on the scale of the forest not a tree.
I have had a number of people comment to me about the out of control Health Care situation here and I have read a number of reports and articles here in Massachusetts that points to the cost of Health care as reaching a breaking point. In 34 communities by the latest count are in trouble financially because of the High Cost of Health care. A couple may be on the verge of bankruptcy or at the least receivership. People are screaming why!
I usually do not like to say this but in this case I need to The Answer is Simple.
First
Health care is expensive! When you need another adult to provide care for you, not in your home, and you want them to earn a living wage so they will give you the best care they can it costs money, a lot of money. Let me also say Health care workers are not getting rich and they work long and hard hours for barely a living wage. Their you have one component of the high cost of health care but it is not the major one. This bares repeating it is not the primary reason for the high cost to our society.
Second
The High cost is a result of....... The aging of the largest generation of all time. That's correct baby boomers are driving up the cost providing health care. The same way as we are going to lead to the collapse of the Social Security Trust Fund. For decades we were young and healthy and working and making lots of money and using little or no services of Social Security or Health Care. Today as we are comfortably into our 5th and 6th decades of life and we are dealing with growing old and having health issues further complicated by all the sins of our youth and the bad decisions we made playing sports, sur-comming to vices like smoking, drinking and eating out night after night all have begun to catch up with us. So the baby boomers instead of net contributors are becoming net consumers and the trend will grow. We really have seen nothing yet. Wait until we are in our 60's and 70's when health becomes a real challenge Cancer, Alzheimer's, Heart Disease, Diabetes, etc. etc. etc. Some of this is a result of Health Care allowing us to live longer. This is happening as very infrastructure of our communities is reaching it's critical age along with us. The cost of repairing it and replacing it are adding to the local fiscal plummet. The numbers may vary to some extent but roughly the mix use to be 60 % workers to 40% retirees. With the baby boomers the numbers flip 40% workers 60% retirees. So like the crisis in Social Security the same circumstances are the driving force to it's publicly discussed approaching collapse the same cause is true for the health care system. There you go the real underlying cause is US
For Economist this is not a surprise but inevitable fact.
OK so simple there is the cause now what is the solution.
Not so simple, there was no reserve fund set up when we were enjoying low costs instead we used these low costs to help balance and maintain a middle class here in our society. We were able to maintain a standard of living on pace with our parents. Yet this generation the 30 and 40 somethings do not have the same benefit and since they are approaching being the major wage earners they have a mounting bill that grows bigger every day and fiscal policy keeps looking to them to pay more. This is where the problems is reaching a breaking point. Their ability to keep up the middle class life style is under assault and they don't like it. In order to pay the bill they will have less, and it is cutting deeply in to their ability to afford the life style of the baby boomer class. They will not keep pace. In communities where the breaking point is perceived to be reached we are seeing the effects. Young families are refusing even attacking the baby boomer generation with changes in fiscal policy and social obligations. They want to kick older employees off of health care to reduce costs they want to forgo services like Senior Centers to save costs, They blame local government for failing to solve the problem.
I will suggest to you here that the government has failed us but on the national scale not the local scale. Locally officials get a bill they have to pay it there is no choice the buck really does stop here. When they don't have the revenue they then have to go to the small group made up of you and I in order to raise the money again they have no choice. Further complicating the process is the limits on how they have to do it. There is no means test they have to take from everyone equally that is the law so the wealthy and the poor pay the same amount that is called regressive.
That is also not a solution but currently it is the only alternative.
There is a solution!
Many with louder voices then just my blog here will say I am wrong, nuts, lack understanding, endangering the American way of life.... and maybe more.
I say listen to them if you like, but they are lying to you, they are motivated by trying to save their own blotted way of life.
We need to Tax the top 1% of the wealth in the United State at a rate that will pay for our obligations to all of our society, and No I am not talking about socialism. What I am talking about is an obligation to share the fruits of our social economic success. Look the CEO making Millions and Billions annually would not be earning this money if it were not for an army of workers beneath him and an army of Support small businesses to provide for his army. When is the last time you saw a CEO or a board member of a major corporation working the line or out making a sale to a local customer NEVER!!!!!
What they fail to realize is if they continue to pit old against new they are leading to there own demise and the demise of the very successes they have created, but since they have made their fortunes why would they care.
What we need are national leaders who will look at this and realize there is no other solution. The pitting the generations against each other is little more then putting father against son on a battle field. This is barbaric and will spell a dark time for our economy and it needs to stop now because no army can sustain itself if it is feeding on itself.
So call upon your elected officials to stop the fighting and get to governing and force a change in tax policy that will create a just system of taking care of our society. Providing for the army that has taken us to these heights and assuring those that follow a life style that is on par with the previous generations. This is the only alternative to solving this crisis to wait until the time of the baby boomers to pass is no solution. For a politician to duck this reality is little more then grabbing the gold ring of the top 1% and ignoring our society. Shame on us if we let them do this and shame on them for putting Father and Mother against Son and Daughter for their own gain.
2008 is upon us the election race has begun it is time to hold our national government to the test are they interested in us for more then our vote or are they interested in themselves. It's time to ask the questions and get the answers. The next time you hear your local government finding a solution to this problem by pitting the young against the old think about the real solution and call your congressman, or US senator or write a letter to the President he lives in your house 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Washington DC and ask them why?
Check the facts look inward and understand the problem. The solution is right there
Ed Quinn
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