Sarah Silverman really did anticipate our health care situation
Our Rick Ungar has blogged today about the olds vs. youngs gap on health care, and then I read the following in the LA Times:
On a recent afternoon, a group of people in their 80s and 90s at a Denver retirement complex voiced some of the same questions about healthcare that are circulating in living rooms and senior centers throughout the country.
“Will it affect how quickly I can get in to see my doctors?” asked Anna Janeway, 80, a retired marriage and family counselor.
“You hear all these things about Medicare going broke if we do nothing. Where would that leave everybody?” asked Anthony Mehelich, 82, a former construction company administrator.
“Do we really have to make so many changes all at once?” inquired Joseph Duffy, 90, a former accountant. “Couldn’t we just take parts of the problem and solve those?”Members of Congress have reported an outpouring of concern from their senior constituents. Rep. Eliot L. Engel (D-N.Y.) said his offices had received “hundreds of calls” from older people eager to understand how they might be affected.
[...]
Another problem is that many seniors, said Rep. John Tanner (D-Tenn.), don’t seem to understand that Medicare basically is a government-run healthcare plan. The lawmaker’s office has been fielding calls from older constituents who say: “I’m happy with Medicare. Don’t let the government take it over.”
So, there you have it. Old people believe in a health care fairy that magically spirits them off to the doctor and pays all of their medical bills, and the rest of us can make sure not to forget to pick up their drugs at the pharmacy and make sure the TV is set to channel 17 for the ‘Murder She Wrote’ re-run at 4:00 because I didn’t fight the Japs in Korea just so you kids could have me euthanized when it became inconvenient for your new Muslim Kenyan president to make sure I had enough cottage cheese in the refrigerator and the toilets don’t flush like they usedZZZZZZZZ….
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Well, Sarah may not be responding to my call for a new ‘Great Schlep,’ but at least she predicted how this would all work out in her amazing film ‘Jesus is Magic.’
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In defense of Old People (which I’ve already been doing with Rick), those who understand what the reform is about are certainly as likely to support it as the Me generations. Some of us, in fact, want the public option BECAUSE we’ve seen that Medicare works pretty well. And most of us who supported Obama did so partly because we’d like a little peace & justice in the world (and equality in health care.) So the work to be done is getting the truth out.
These are all fair points and I certainly agree that plenty of seniors and geezers as my ex-boss Jim Ridgeway likes to call himself see the need for a public option. I really do think that if pro-health care reform grandkids called up their grandparents and asked them to change their minds about health care, it really would make a difference. I would put my three living grandmothers (some of whom read these blogs – hello!) in the category of those who don’t need me to do any schlepping or calling. But the idea that Members of Congress are getting spooked by olds who believe in the Medicare fairy makes my skin crawl.
In response to another comment. See in context »I realize that there are lots of older people who need healthcare now, but those people will die, as Sarah points out, and by the time all the effects of this bill kick in, at least some of them will be gone. This is a bill for people who are not AARP members yet, even though everyone is acting like only AARP needs to care about the Medicare aspect. This is a long term issue, but we don’t see the long term, particularly my generation. Pity.