In a week that has presented few class acts, i.e. Tiger Woods and Senator Max Baucus, Senator Paul G. Kirk, Jr. of Massachusetts pushed the Senate to keep the CLASS amendment as a part of health care reform. For his efforts and the narrow victory on keeping CLASS in the health care bill Senator Paul G. Kirk, Jr. is our hero of the week.
Many citizens may not even be aware of this important part of health care reform. What is CLASS?
The Community Living Assistance Services and Supports Act, championed by the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy, would create a voluntary, self-funded insurance program that enables people who have disabilities to receive benefits for the care they need the most.
From Senator Kirk’s speech on the floor of the Senate on Friday:
After contributing for five years, they become eligible for a cash benefit of at least $50 a day if they become disabled. That cash benefit can make the difference in allowing a disabled person to live with independence, self-respect and dignity. For example, it can pay for having a ramp installed to their home, or to pay for needed transportation, or to purchase a computer to work from home and remain self-sufficient. It can also pay for a caregiver to come to their home, help them bathe, get dressed, and cook meals—services that otherwise often fall to family and friends, who are forced to work reduced hours on their own jobs, or quit those jobs altogether.
Having watched the health care reform move through the House and now crawl through the Senate, Senator Paul Kirk, Jr. has fought for and so far been successful in keeping CLASS a part of health care reform.
In support of Senator Kirk’s efforts BernieHund would like to add a scenario that hit home in our immediate family. Resulting from an accident some 40 years ago an individual has become paralyzed from the chest down… an incomplete quadriplegic. For 38 years the individual worked when he could, unfortunately not enough to have earned his 40 quarters needed for Social Security Disability benefits. Never once did he ask for or seek government assistance to pay his bills.
In fact, for a period of time he paid hospital insurance premiums in case he became ill and had to be confined to hospital. Perhaps, he was not as wise as some. After three hospitalizations… each denied by his insurance carrier… he dropped his hospitalization coverage. You see, almost anything that can happen to an individual can be traced back to something. As an example, pneumonia was denied once because of his diminished lung capacity resulting from the paralysis. Actually, the insurance company would have been a little more honest if it had just refused to issue the policy.
Due to a hip injury he was admitted to the hospital. Admittedly, the hip injury had been present for over a year but because of no insurance the individual did not see a doctor unless he “needed” to. He had no way of knowing his hip was broken. Once admitted to the hospital he was finally eligible for Medicaid. For the point of this discussion, let’s just say that after several months the individual was released from the hospital.
The patient was returned home with a KCI Vac-pak, the need to have the area where his hip disarticulation was performed cleaned and the dressing changed daily. Please note that using a KCI Vac-Pak and changing the dressing is not the same as changing the bandage on a sore… for those who do not know.
When a urinary infection occurred, the patient was returned to the hospital for three days. He was released once the bacteria causing the infection was determined and sent home with the instructions to have a shot administered twice a day for ten days. Only once during those ten days was a home health nurse made available. In fact, no one asked for a urinary sample following the ten day period to determine if the medication had worked or not.
Here’s the bottom line. The patient was sent home with the allowance of two visits by a health care professional. The patient can be placed in a wheelchair for a couple of hours a day. Other than that he is bedridden, requiring 24 hour a day care, 7 days a week. There are no days off. For the person who may be thinking of this as a “baby sitting” job, let me only say that I hope he never is put in a place to learn better. The care of the quadriplegic patient often requires six to eight hours of hands on care during the course of the day. The rest of the day is spent caring for other needs that are perhaps not so personal.
The other option? Put the patient in a nursing home for the rest of his life. Separate him from his family. Take him from a stimulating environment of activity and love and place him in a bed that is filled with those who are waiting to die.
As the doctor said when he released the patient from the hospital, “Whatever you do, do not let them put him in a nursing home. He will be dead within three months.” The doctor was not degrading nursing home care. He was simply saying that this patient is alive mentally. And, yes, the patient would have died had he believed he was being sent to a nursing home to wait for death to draw his number, not to mention the loss his family would feel.
This is the situation like so many across our nation. The family unit chose to stay together. They chose to put family first. With so much talk on both sides of the isle about family values, it is really difficult to understand how any senator would cast a vote to stand in the way of a man or woman being able to stay home in the midst of his or her loved ones where he could receive care and love. It is amazing how some of our senators believe it is okay to just toss everyone in a nursing home when a disability occurs. It is even more amazing that due to lack of long term care provisions some senators believe it is okay to punish an entire family. In the case mentioned, the family lost a small family business and all outside income in favor of taking care of a loved one.
So, hats off to Senator Paul G. Kirk, Jr., our hero of the week for carrying on Ted Kennedy’s mission and for pushing so hard to keep those of us who need long term care in the game.
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