KEITH

Many long term medical care facilities seem more like being in prison than living any kind of real life. From personal experience I can testify that this is true.

Is there any way for you to get transferred to an "assisted living" situation? Or because of certain medical needs are you forced to be in a nursing home situation? As you wrote in your introduction above, is it a nursing home or nothing because the state won't pay for it? An assisted living situation would probably be a lot better atmosphere for you to live in if you were able to manage it. If you found an assisted living place on your own, would California pay for it? They have so many archaic rules.

CC-Thanks for asking. I have moved into a board and care where I have a small room of my own. Other than medical expenses, no one helps as far as government is concerned. I pay all but $250.00 as rent and food and care. Uncle Sugar did supply the hospital bed and an electric wheelchair. A nice assisted living runs around $3000.00 monthly. The actual figure is dependent on what kind of care and how much care. In both assisted care and board and care there is nearly full freedom to come and go. The limitations for me are time related. I can sit for a short but variable amount of time. The only type of care paid for by the state is limited to nursing or full care hospitals. There are acceptations but I don't know the requirements.

Keith

Check out this link. Changes are being made all the time to the qualifications. Lots of time the people assigned to help don't know all that's available.

Here is Government and a California's guide for 2007.

Keit

Sounds like this is what you're looking for. Don't know if the program is still going (this was back in 2006) or if you would qualify but check it out.

keith - my 94 year old great aunt lived in a baptist retirement (assisted living) facility for the last two years of her life in okc - she had her own two bdr apt with all the amenities for about one third of her income - they also provide meals within the cost of living there, although she preferred to not eat with all those "sickly people" - said she got tired of hearing of all their aches and pains! most of them were 20-30 years younger than she.

they also provided transportation to and from doctor's appointments and shopping trips to town once a week. i'd suggest that if you're in californistan - GET THE HELL OUT! cali will try to kill you if you're not worthy of living...

NANC

Actually I live on the ground floor of a Catholic Convent. I have my own door to the outside with my electric chariot sitting just outside the door. As I am not a Catholic I was wondering what kind of "status I would have. It doesn't seem to matter. As far as transportation, my doctor is within less than 1/2 miles.

Thanks to all for the links and such. They will certainly be followed up.

As a side note, While people like myself have inconveniences, many that post on the DR recently have much more of a handicap in their vision. They seem to see only one narrow path without any permitted deviation. This can be a great world to live in but it will take a broader way of seeing from all sides. There are many that try but run into the closed minded types with only one view of life. This sure doesn't have anything to do with this thread but today I have read far too much of these narrow views. We have got to do better.

Medicaid is a state run program. If the state is going to pay for their health care then the state will do it as cost effective as possible. That involves group living and group care.

That is if the person cannot take care of themselves on a day to day basis. Medicaid is not going to pay for 24 hour private nursing in the home.

We have got to do better.

#6 | Posted by keith204

Newsworthy

Sir, I need you advice. And maybe you're the one to make that difference.

My question is, 'How do 'we' go about doing better'?

Obviously, the answer will be full of abstractions, but where to start?

LIPZOIDIAL

The best place I can think of for more than a start is with an open mind. One heck of a lot may just fall into place on it's own after that.

There's not enough money on planet earth to pay for the healthcare needs of America's seniors, the way the programs are drawn up now. Look for a lot more stories, just like this one, over coming years.

I was giving a speech last year to a Medical Association, and the speaker just before me said that if we took every nurse and doctor in medical programs today, and for the next 10 years took all the rest of them, and put them into Geriatric Medicine, we still wouldn't have enough doctors and nurses to take care of the aging Boomers. That's not a problem that can be wiped away by more money thrown into Medicare. If you have money, you'll get care. If not, you won't. Simple as that. There's not going to be enough doctors and nurses to go around, fewer still will be the number of docs and nurses willing to work for free.

Your government at work. Why do you want to put them in charge of your healthcare?