Rationing toothpaste is no way to live
I don’t like being a
downer, just focusing on wrongs, but some wrongs stand out as morally
abominable, such as this one.
It’s about hundreds
of thousands of our low-income elders who, toward the end of life — when
they’re frail and most vulnerable — find themselves cast into a part of the
Medicaid system that has been deliberately structured by Congress to subject
them to needless deprivations and daily indignities.
These are our loved
ones with serious health problems who need long-term care in nursing homes, and
two-thirds of them rely on Medicaid to cover their costs. To get this benefit,
they surrender all of their income, which goes to
defray their nursing home expenses.
Of course, for a
decent existence beyond mere survival, we all rely on a few little things that
are basic to our humanity. The government authorizes each state to set a
monthly “personal needs allowance,” so elderly patients can cover their hygiene
and grooming products, a book or CD, a small gift for grandchildren, a
chocolate bar, etc.
Good! But then Mr.
Mingy walked in.
In 1987, Congress set the minimum for this allowance at a meager $30 a month –- under $8 a week! Congress has not raised it in the 36 years since. And most states still provide only a pittance, despite inflation and monopoly price gouging on practically everything.
So, our state and
national “leaders” (who freely dole out massive corporate subsidies and tax
giveaways to billionaires) are leaving ill seniors with so little spending
money that they must ration their toothpaste and scrimp pennies to buy a rare
treat from the vending machine.
I know this is small
in the global scale of human indignities, but that makes it an even bigger
moral failure for our society. It would take so little to do so much for so
many.
OtherWords
columnist Jim Hightower is a radio commentator,
writer, and public speaker. This op-ed was distributed by OtherWords.org.