Consider how all this sexual misconduct among our celebrities quietly went on for all this time, but only now is breaking as scandal. Sometimes, terrible wrongs go on without much notice until suddenly someone says, Hey, wait a minute, what is going on here?
I tell you there is another scandal waiting to break: Our treatment of the elderly. As life expectancy has increased, the number of seniors in invalid condition has increased. And, we no longer live in a day where there as so many of their children who can care for them in their senior years. With more people to care for, and fewer family members able to care for them, these days, the senior center is a necessary norm.
And, an expensive one. In order to qualify, you must pay by forfeiting all the resources you have -- meaning, your life savings. If you have property, the nursing home requires you sell it off to pay them.
Is this not scandal, that we rob them of their life savings to place them in senior living housing?
Nor, is this the full of the scandal. We have hospice workers who pledge to be available for them 24/7, who are not. And, can the families sue? Commonly, the care givers have you sign an agreement forgoing your right to sue.
In some ways, hospice has become a way to get this expensive care paid for when no one else is willing. If you can get on hospice, there can be a way to pay for the care. In some cases, though, this means renouncing your right to curative care in order to qualify, since hospice is primarily for those who do agree not to pursue treatments that might restore their health.
Is that not sort of a scandal, as well?
The scandal got a little bit of an unveiling this past week, as Time Magazine carried some articles in the Nov. 27 issue.
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