Kaiser Health News (now called KHN) published an article titled, “Do We Simply Not Care About Old People?” The inflammatory headline was about the high death toll of older adults from covid, saying:
The covid-19 pandemic would be a wake-up call for America, advocates for the elderly predicted: incontrovertible proof that the nation wasn’t doing enough to care for vulnerable older adults.
The death toll was shocking, as were reports of chaos in nursing homes and seniors suffering from isolation, depression, untreated illness, and neglect. Around 900,000 older adults have died of covid-19 to date, accounting for 3 of every 4 Americans who have perished in the pandemic.
Purportedly, decisive efforts to further protect the elderly from covid have not taken place. KHN laments that public health officials and politicians alike have come to think of covid as just an evitable fact of life.
Many seniors at high risk aren’t getting antiviral therapies for covid, and most older adults in nursing homes aren’t getting updated vaccines. Efforts to strengthen care quality in nursing homes and assisted living centers have stalled amid debate over costs and the availability of staff. And only a small percentage of people are masking or taking other precautions in public despite a new wave of covid, flu, and respiratory syncytial virus infections hospitalizing and killing seniors.
Given as evidence of the lack of concern for seniors was the statistic that in the 3-week period that included the final week of 2023 and the first two weeks of 2024, nearly 5,000 seniors died of covid. According to the story, 4,810 adults 65-years of age and older died of covid and another 1,201 died of influenza.
“It boggles my mind that there isn’t more outrage,” said Alice Bonner, 66, senior adviser for aging at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. “I’m at the point where I want to say, ‘What the heck? Why aren’t people responding and doing more for older adults?’”
It’s a good question. Do we simply not care?
KHN spoke with a variety of academics and public health advocates and got the usual stream of condescending, paternalistic viewpoints. Some of the comments seem to have little to do with why more seniors died from Covid than younger, healthier people.
“I think the pandemic helped reinforce images of older people as sick, frail, and isolated — as people who aren’t like the rest of us,” [Karl Pillemer, 69] said.
“Everyone loves their own parents. But as a society, we don’t value older adults or the people who care for them,” said Robert Kramer, 74…
“The message to older adults is: ‘Your time has passed, give up your seat at the table, stop consuming resources, fall in line,’” said Anne Montgomery, 65…
“We have to find ways to better integrate older adults in the community as opposed to moving them to campuses where they are apart from the rest of us,” [G. Allen Power, 70]
The examples of putting vulnerable seniors at risk that I think about was when several Northeastern states forced nursing homes to admit convalescing covid patients to free up hospital beds in 2020. The states, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Michigan required nursing homes to admit covid patients in the spring o 2020. California passed a similar requirement but peddled back after a public opinion backlash. I cannot think of a riskier policy than forcing long term care facilities to mingle the sick with disabled seniors in poor health. A Congressional hearing agreed.
I know a fair number of people aged 65 years or older. With few exceptions they make their own decisions about the care they receive. Many have strong opinions about covid treatments and vaccinations. Most are capable of deciding whether they want vaccinated for covid and flu. Their adult offspring help them in instances when they’re not competent to make those decisions for themselves. As a group, seniors aren’t waiting for public health officials to commandeer their health care choices.
The government’s central planners have good intentions but their results always cost more and take away the freedom of choice of the individuals or voters. In Southern Cities, like Orlando, the City sells Blue Cross’s PPO to City Employees for $1,207/month. If a 30-year-old Couple + child in Orlando got Obamacare the cost for Blue Cross is $1,095/month with a $9,400 deductible. If this family earns $100,000 annually, they are not dentists, surgeons, or lawyers, the Obamacare “Subsidy” of $495/month drops their premium to $600/month. However, in the Free and Open Market, Trump’s Plan for this family is $4,413/year or $367/month with a $10,000 deductible.
The Free Market Trump Plan is $233/month less than the dangerous and deadly Government’s Obamacare Managed Care HMO that pays NOTHING at the good hospitals. The Free Market Plan or Trump’s Plan is $233/month cheaper after the Obamacare Subsidy of $495 is applied. Let’s pretend Devon you could make intelligent decisions, that would take a vivid imagination. If you were this young family which would you choose to pay? Trump’s $367/month or Obamacare’s dangerous plan for $600/month? Devon, an Orlando City employee can switch to the Trump plan and drop their monthly cost from $1,207month to $367/month and save $840/month! Plus, taxpayers save $2,090/month or $25,000+ Annually per employee!
The Politicians, Non-Profits, and Media say they want Free Markets and the freedom of choice yet all of their policies are to advance Socialism! Obamacare is insane! Obamacare has no subsidy for a struggling single-parent 30-year-old Mother in Orlando earning $75,000/year who is buying Obamacare for a 10-year-old son. She earns too much! But, a multi-millionaire 60-year-old couple earning $250,000/year in Orlando gets a $360/month Obamacare Subsidy and drops their overpriced Obamacare Premium of $1,960/month to $1,600/month. Obamacare gives 60-year-old multi-millionaires Subsidies but Single-Parent Moms get ZERO! The cost for Trump’s Plan for the $60-year-old Couple is $12,763/year or $1,063/month. (Trump’s Plan is $547/month cheaper than Obamacare AFTER the Obamacare Subsidy!)
Conclusion; Employer-sponsored insurance (ESI Blue Cross Monopoly), Medicaid, and Obamacare (More Blue Cross Monopoly) can’t compete with Free Markets. Central planners lost big time. Trump’s Plan is the lowest-cost health insurance in 32 states for people under 65. Only 2 companies have all of the Trump Market share, United Healthcare, the World’s largest insurer, and Allstate, the Sears and Roebuck’s Catalog Insurance spinoff. If Employer-Based Benefits are dead it’s time to short Anthem Blue Cross and a few other choice stocks that are propped up by Obamacare and current tax law.
Note to Ron:
The Trump plan is underwritten; the ACA plan is not.
Of course a healthy person is better off under the Trump plan. A person with any pre-existing conditions is out of luck.
The real issue is this: could we have a health insurance system that let the healthy enjoy low premiums AND was compassionate to the unhealthy minority?
Dr. Goodman has suggested that this could be accomplished with high-risk pools for the unhealthy plus free market insurance for everybody else.
I think he may be right. The stumbling block before Obamacare was the unwillingness of most states to provide adequate tax payer funding for the high risk pools. It might take the federal government to provide the funding…..at least $40 billion a year.
Note to Devon:
Thanks for a thoughtful article on the health of the elderly. Here are a few observations:
1. Was the death rate of the elderly drastically higher in the four states that moved Covid patients into nursing homes? I do not know the answer, but throughout the Covid plague we have seen statistics that surprise us.
2. I was in a support group for people who cared for an elderly parent or spouse. I was somewhat favored myself because my mother was stable and cheerful……however, it was heartbreaking to hear what some caregivers were going through. Their own lives were effectively being sacrificed. I suspect that their supply of compassion was getting pretty low.
3. The growth of the post-age-85 population is daunting. According the Census Bureau, the number of 85+ persons essentially doubled between 2002 and 2020, and will double again by 2040.
This is a clunky analogy, but maybe the social supply of compassion is somewhat fixed, but it must now be spread over twice as many individuals.
As I recall the states that required nursing to take convalescing covid patients had much higher death rates among residents. I forget the exact figures but there was a Congressional hearing on it.