Back Page News: The Financial Burden of Healthcare in America

or back page news, with the sick and the old?

Some of Adam’s other songs cause kids addicted to drugs to stop and cry. They relate to this young man who, with all his pain, keeps struggling onward, keeps trying to help others lead a better quality life.

I am 61 years old. I have little social security. I cared for seven elders for about two decades while I did some freelance writing and raised my young sons. I wrote a caregiver’s support book. That’s not “real work,” so there’s no retirement income from those years. The cost of our medications is eating up any hope of retirement for me.

That’s okay. I don’t need to retire. I want to keep contributing. But will my body hold out?

My mother inherited a nice sum of money, but spent over seven years in a private room in a nursing home. Her money and her life ran out nearly in tandem. She, too, had worried about paying the cost of care. Fortunately, my uncle was able to pay that for her. I won’t have an inheritance to leave my sons. I won’t have money to pay for my nursing home care. I just pray I won’t be leaving my kids debt. And I pray that Adam won’t live a life of poverty as the price for his genetic health problems.

$593.43. If it were only one month, I’d shrug and pay it off. Just a cost of living. But it’s a monster that keeps growing. And there are many others who have it much worse. Will this medical debt make it impossible for me to continue helping elders and caregivers through my book and Web site? Will it keep young people from hearing my son’s lyrics? Lyrics that can help heal troubled young people? Is this how America is supposed to work?


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For more information about Carol go to www.mindingourelders.com or www.mindingoureldersblogs.com.