Elderly and Disabled Put At Risk by DUMB Government Ideas

California recently decided that one of the ways to cut its budget deficit is by slashing money to home health workers. These include nurses, health aides, meals on wheels deliveries, and other individuals that go to the homes of elderly and disabled citizens and provide them with care to ensure that they can continue living independently, in their own homes. When I first heard that California was going to reduce the wages and benefits to these home health workers, I found it to be an incredibly STUPID idea - another example of our government leaders acting EXTREMELY DUMB (something they have proven time and again that they are adept at!)

Why is this decision dumb? Because while it may cost $1500 a month to provide home health services to one person, it would cost the government nearly $6000 a month to cover the costs of a nursing home for this same individual! Some may argue we should cut that expense, too; if the elderly can't afford to pay for home health or nursing homes on their own, then they should just have to deal with it, some might say. I puke a little at the thought that people like this exist in our world. But I can show why that is an incredibly stupid argument as well. If we don't provide any care to these individuals, guess what - 911 is three numbers away and the hospital is a short, but expensive Ambulance ride away. The cost of the ambulance and even a short hospital stay can then skyrocket upwards of $50,000 for the individual - multiplied by the numerous times these folks will end up going to the hospital for falls, lack of nutrition, and other chronic diseases of the elderly. Someone on fixed Social Security benefits without savings is not going to be able to pay for these expenses and they will end up right back on the taxpayer.

There is an incredible New York Times Article on this topic that you can read and see further examples of why this is such a stupid idea. Just click on the link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/21/us/21aging.html?pagewanted=1&hp

It is very sad to me that in our rich nation, we continue to see policies that cut the nose off to spite the face. We see this in other aspects of government ideas, such as education. Rather than spend the money upfront for quality early education and K-12 programs tied together with access to housing, healthcare, jobs, nutrition, etc, we instead run a threadbare operation...and ultimately end up spending MUCH more money on prisons down the road. It costs A HECKUVA LOT MORE MONEY to house a prisoner for a year than to provide excellent opportunities early in life!!

I am really beginning to question whether dumb people outnumber smart people in our society. And if so, why haven't we smart people done something about the dumb people? We have all come to feel so powerless to stop stupid policies that, in a way, we have just come to quietly acquiesce and accept them as inevitable.

Lord help us!