America is my country. This is my America the Beautiful and I share it with you and yours.
Imagine my disbelief today when I was told that Trenton voters have been urged not to vote.
Trenton churchgoers have been advised to stay away from the polls this November.
At first, I thought someone was joking. Then several people chimed in that this was indeed the case. Everyone had a different slant on the story, but it all boiled down to the fact that church leaders, pastors, preachers in Trenton want voters to stay home.
Ministers are preaching from the pulpit that this election is a lose-lose for their churchgoers. When I asked for particulars, I was told the following:
1. If you vote Republican, you vote for a Mormon. (OK. That is no secret, what is wrong with that?)
2. Romney is a Mormon and therefore he is not a Christian...or anti-Christian...or just working with the Devil and believes in polygamy. (Come on people, this is the 21st Century)
Well, it looks like a slam dunk for the President. That is until the preaching continues thus:
1. If you vote Democrat, you will be voting for a black man who is in favor of gay marriage, which is a sin... (What? GLT tolerance has permitted more people to contribute to our nation's diversity. Also, not every American is a Christian so the Bible is not universal doctrine.)
2. The President is a black man who is not behaving like a black man...( guess you can't please everybody. President Obama has turned out to be color-blind)
Going to church is a rich experience and a welcome chance to recharge spiritual batteries. It seems to me that these local clergy need to have their heads examined.
There is supposed to be a separation of church and state in this country. This is a heck of a good reason to reinforce that.
Meddling in affairs of state by superimposing individual religious preferences is absolutely contrary to our Constitution.
Clear your heads, everyone. If some robed chucklehead bellowing from a pulpit is trying to get your attention and sway your vote, walk out!
Churches presently enjoy tax exempt non-profit status in the City of Trenton. If parishoners do not go to the polls, that situation can be very neatly corrected.
This is a glorious and open society with Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddists and Hindu. There are also Native American, Wiccan, and many other faiths, worshiping side by side and tax exempt, in our City of Trenton.
We do not have a State Religion with good cause.
Our culture and its mores are based on principles set down by our founding fathers. If you remember in the very beginnings of our country, only people who owned land were able to have a voice in determining the future of the republic. Women had to petition to be heard and finally got the right to vote reinstated in the twentieth century. That's right. If single, and property owners, women and free Blacks could vote under the original Constitution. By 1809 the states had taken that away. The Civil War emancipated slaves, but women were shut out until more recently. One of the most cherished and sacred privileges a citizen can have is to vote.
When election day rolls around, tension builds and television ads for the candidates drive us nuts. It is all part of the decision making process. Finally we take our ideas and preferences to the polling place. Pressing levers behind curtains, or marking paper ballots the old fashioned way, we take a stab at making our voices heard. We do our part to steer our ship of state to the next four years of hope or disaster.
If you don't vote in this election, kiss your place in the community,
"Goodbye."
Seniors vote.
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Saturday, September 15, 2012
Bubble Up, Not Trickle Down
Some time ago, I suggested that a ten percent raise in Social Security Benefits would spur the US economy faster than another "bailout". Consider this:
Most of the money theory floating around presently makes a big deal about the old-fashioned idea of "trickle down". This means throwing funds at big business to make it so happy that new jobs will budd and burst off like maturing amoebas.
Ick. Messy. Running a country like Jackson Pollock paints.
Surprise, surprise...it does not seem to be working.
Business moguls and their boards of directors have to answer to stockholders and everyone is on board with the capitalistic notion of making money---not spending it. Bonuses have to be earned and accounted for, dividends are nice, poison pills make sure that noone steps on your parade, and the orgy continues. So where is the money?
The problem in this present business climate is that big business is hoarding (gasp, choke, urk!) the surplus monies they were supposed to be reinvesting. Reinvesting in capital improvements, plant expansions, research and development, and even jobs is on major hold because the international climate is uncertain. The value of the dollar changes so rapidly that there is a real dread of making a big mistake by making a Big Move.
Whatever, whatever, is an economist to do?
Senior citizens, living on Social Security, are not worried about the "Big Move". Seniors are more concerned with the nitty-gritty and down to earth problems of food, shelter and medicine. Even a ten percent increase in a thousand dollar check is a big difference in an elderly person's life style.
Consider that funding from Social Security is spent in the middle segment of the economy. If someone needs to eat, that person is not likely to put a down payment on a fur coat or 42 foot yacht. Social Security payments go to a restaurant, a local shop or even a US Savings Bond for a grandchild. This is a steady segment of the economy that will produce jobs. That Wendy's or MacDonald's restaurant hires local people. Staples, Walmart, Target, Petsmart, Lowes, etc. are not bringing in executives in jets to man cash registers. No, not at all. The jobs that senior-spending support are definitely in the middle or lower middle of the employment range and correspond to that part of our country-wide recession hit the hardest.
Jean Batiste Say was the origin of the popular phrase that "supply creates its own demand." But if you cannot find a market before your goods are discounted, you are out of luck. One example is Kohls discounting 30 percent, handing out 20 percent coupons, and then topping it off with cash coupons for another visit. If you have a bloated inventory, you have to get cash flowing. John Maynard Keynes (uncle of Quentin Keynes, my African explorer friend, as per previous blog) observed that when people did sell something, it did not guarantee that they would spend the proceeds. In previous recessions, folks have been known to chipmunk and stash money in a mattress. I guess nowadays it would more likely be in the freezer behind the pizza rolls....whatever.
My point is that there is going to be more turnover and less hoarding in the middle of the economy.
And that is my soapbox for the day.
Seniors rock.
Most of the money theory floating around presently makes a big deal about the old-fashioned idea of "trickle down". This means throwing funds at big business to make it so happy that new jobs will budd and burst off like maturing amoebas.
Ick. Messy. Running a country like Jackson Pollock paints.
Surprise, surprise...it does not seem to be working.
Business moguls and their boards of directors have to answer to stockholders and everyone is on board with the capitalistic notion of making money---not spending it. Bonuses have to be earned and accounted for, dividends are nice, poison pills make sure that noone steps on your parade, and the orgy continues. So where is the money?
The problem in this present business climate is that big business is hoarding (gasp, choke, urk!) the surplus monies they were supposed to be reinvesting. Reinvesting in capital improvements, plant expansions, research and development, and even jobs is on major hold because the international climate is uncertain. The value of the dollar changes so rapidly that there is a real dread of making a big mistake by making a Big Move.
Whatever, whatever, is an economist to do?
Senior citizens, living on Social Security, are not worried about the "Big Move". Seniors are more concerned with the nitty-gritty and down to earth problems of food, shelter and medicine. Even a ten percent increase in a thousand dollar check is a big difference in an elderly person's life style.
Consider that funding from Social Security is spent in the middle segment of the economy. If someone needs to eat, that person is not likely to put a down payment on a fur coat or 42 foot yacht. Social Security payments go to a restaurant, a local shop or even a US Savings Bond for a grandchild. This is a steady segment of the economy that will produce jobs. That Wendy's or MacDonald's restaurant hires local people. Staples, Walmart, Target, Petsmart, Lowes, etc. are not bringing in executives in jets to man cash registers. No, not at all. The jobs that senior-spending support are definitely in the middle or lower middle of the employment range and correspond to that part of our country-wide recession hit the hardest.
Jean Batiste Say was the origin of the popular phrase that "supply creates its own demand." But if you cannot find a market before your goods are discounted, you are out of luck. One example is Kohls discounting 30 percent, handing out 20 percent coupons, and then topping it off with cash coupons for another visit. If you have a bloated inventory, you have to get cash flowing. John Maynard Keynes (uncle of Quentin Keynes, my African explorer friend, as per previous blog) observed that when people did sell something, it did not guarantee that they would spend the proceeds. In previous recessions, folks have been known to chipmunk and stash money in a mattress. I guess nowadays it would more likely be in the freezer behind the pizza rolls....whatever.
My point is that there is going to be more turnover and less hoarding in the middle of the economy.
And that is my soapbox for the day.
Seniors rock.
Friday, September 14, 2012
New Jersey History
New Jersey History
Here is some great information on what makes NJ tick. If you want to know where you are going, you have to know where you have been.
Here is some great information on what makes NJ tick. If you want to know where you are going, you have to know where you have been.
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
This Business of Medicare Vouchers....
For several weeks now, I have had a Google Alert for news of the Ryan Plan for Medicare. Not surprising, it scared the heck out of me.
Ryan's plan was conceived because there is a fear that Medicare is running out of time to be able to balance its books.
That is a bit of nonsense if we are to accept another government form of accounting as being the unassailable truth. This is like looking up at Mount Fuji and knowing that gazillions of people before you have made it to the top. However if you don't feel like you will be able to breathe, or your knees won't take you that far, you are indeed likely to be skeptical of someone who tells you it is going to be duck soup. In this case, miso and duck soup. At any rate, you don't believe that this bozo has all the facts.
Well that is the case with the Paul Ryan Plan for Medicare. I don't care what anyone says, I want to have the facts for myself.
And thus the Google Alert that force feeds me article after article concerning this skinny numbskull's well meaning attempt to innovate. Only problem is that his ideas are really not that original.
For example, his savings for Medicare, which are going to come from vouchers, are the same as the savings projected by the Obama Administration for current policy changes. The Ryan plan will divert the savings into the national "defense fund" whereas Obama will use the monies in medical areas.
Haven't we had enough of Republican war mongering...excuse me, war policy? Somewhere in the Obama numbers is one TRILLION DOLLARS for future projected costs of the disabled coming home from these recent war exercises in Iraq and Afghanistan.
My heart bleeds for our young men and women who thought they were doing the right thing after 9/11 and found themselves less than they were before. They are coming home as heroes but jobs are not waiting for them and, if disabled, jobs may never be there in the same context as they were before.
We are coming up on Grandparent's Day. Every year for a decade, it has coincided with the 9/11 weekend. The Grandparents Grove at Mercer County Park is gorgeous this time of year and the Office on Aging maintains a bulletin board with a calendar and all sorts of news. Check it out!
Perhaps this year we can remember and celebrate family values and traditions while embracing changes in our society. Perhaps it is the desire to leave something of ourselves behind, but seniors are especially good at thinking of others. We must look ahead at those challenges to our economy and how we can now reach out and help our disabled soldiers move forward.
By the way, the Ryan vouchers have been estimated to cost the average senior between $6,000 and $12,000 extra, above present Medicare amounts, just to keep comparable coverage.
This column will include further information and investigation into the options put forth by changes in medical coverage during 2012.
Seniors Rock!
Ryan's plan was conceived because there is a fear that Medicare is running out of time to be able to balance its books.
That is a bit of nonsense if we are to accept another government form of accounting as being the unassailable truth. This is like looking up at Mount Fuji and knowing that gazillions of people before you have made it to the top. However if you don't feel like you will be able to breathe, or your knees won't take you that far, you are indeed likely to be skeptical of someone who tells you it is going to be duck soup. In this case, miso and duck soup. At any rate, you don't believe that this bozo has all the facts.
Well that is the case with the Paul Ryan Plan for Medicare. I don't care what anyone says, I want to have the facts for myself.
And thus the Google Alert that force feeds me article after article concerning this skinny numbskull's well meaning attempt to innovate. Only problem is that his ideas are really not that original.
For example, his savings for Medicare, which are going to come from vouchers, are the same as the savings projected by the Obama Administration for current policy changes. The Ryan plan will divert the savings into the national "defense fund" whereas Obama will use the monies in medical areas.
Haven't we had enough of Republican war mongering...excuse me, war policy? Somewhere in the Obama numbers is one TRILLION DOLLARS for future projected costs of the disabled coming home from these recent war exercises in Iraq and Afghanistan.
My heart bleeds for our young men and women who thought they were doing the right thing after 9/11 and found themselves less than they were before. They are coming home as heroes but jobs are not waiting for them and, if disabled, jobs may never be there in the same context as they were before.
We are coming up on Grandparent's Day. Every year for a decade, it has coincided with the 9/11 weekend. The Grandparents Grove at Mercer County Park is gorgeous this time of year and the Office on Aging maintains a bulletin board with a calendar and all sorts of news. Check it out!
Perhaps this year we can remember and celebrate family values and traditions while embracing changes in our society. Perhaps it is the desire to leave something of ourselves behind, but seniors are especially good at thinking of others. We must look ahead at those challenges to our economy and how we can now reach out and help our disabled soldiers move forward.
By the way, the Ryan vouchers have been estimated to cost the average senior between $6,000 and $12,000 extra, above present Medicare amounts, just to keep comparable coverage.
This column will include further information and investigation into the options put forth by changes in medical coverage during 2012.
Seniors Rock!
Sunday, August 19, 2012
2012 Results of NJ Senior Art Show: Huzzah!
Mercer County Artists defy category and description. This year's exhibition of Senior Citizen artists showed an amazing range of imagination, inspiration, and ingenuity. Sometimes it takes a lifetime of experience to provide such a rich depth to artistic expression. Its not that we feel superior to those youngsters struggling to find their voice, its just that we are so bursting with life stories that we don't know where to start!
Many senior recreation centers give older adults their first lessons in art; sometimes art comes from just dabbling and doodling with pen or brush. However it happens, the Mercer County Senior Art Show gives everyone an opportunity to show their final results. Show exhibits are divided into both professional and non-professional categories so that the competition continues to encourage "Sunday painters".
The Mercer County Senior Art Show is presented each year by the Office on Aging/Department of Human Services, the Division of Culture and Heritage of Mercer County, and with the auspices of the County Executive Brian Hughes. This year's show was elegantly hosted by the Springpoint Foundation at Meadow Lakes in Hightstown, New Jersey.
The winners from this year's Mercer County Show will go on to the statewide show in the fall. Kate Somers, the jurist for this year's county show, has over 20 years experience and is currently the curator of the Bernstein Gallery at Princeton University. Somers remarked that her choices for this year's prize winners "resonated---each for a different reason."
We are proud to list the winners:
Acrylics--Non Professional
1. Beth K. Wham, "2011's Hot Models"
2. Frank M. Scarpati, "Roses"
Craft--Non Professional
1. Sue S. Chiu, "Lidded Basket Jar" clay craft
2. Katheryn Deguire, "Homage to Judy Stein" stained glass
Mixed Media--Non Professional
1. Ahuva Arie, "The Balcony" collage
2. Mary S. Johnson, "The Crocodile" mixed media
Oils--Non Professional
1. Richard Snarski, "Peter's Pool" oil
2. Norman Fesmire, "Sam" oil
Photography--Non Professional
1. Judy Filipponi, "Biding Time in the Village" digital photography
2. Anne Benedict, "The Great Egret is Landing" photography
Photography--Professional
1. Gerald P. Sternberg, "Tree of Life" photography
2. Walt Varan, "Untitled" photography
Watercolors--Professional
1. Suzanne M. Hunt, "It's a Hoot" watercolor
2. Margaret Rosen, "Prism" watercolor and ink
Watercolors--Non Professional
1. Terry Goldstein, "Village on the Hill" watercolor/gouache
2. Huiyi Huang, "Longlife & Happiness" watercolor
Works on Paper--Professional
1. Victoria Chu Moy, "Caryatid" Conte pencil
2. Robert Allard, "West Creek Chair house" pencil
Works on Paper--Non Professional
1. David T. Potts, "The Sea Maiden" pen and ink
2. Ming Ji, "Lakeside", Chinese ink
Special awards were presented to the following artists for their extraordinary efforts.
Best in Show:
*Frank Snarski, "Peter's Pool" oil
County Special Mention:
*Manfred Peil, "Untitled" pen and ink
Mercer County Intern's Award:
*David Potts, "The Sea Maiden" pen and ink
Wow! This show was terrific and everyone who participated deserves applause for a job well done.
Seniors rock!
Many senior recreation centers give older adults their first lessons in art; sometimes art comes from just dabbling and doodling with pen or brush. However it happens, the Mercer County Senior Art Show gives everyone an opportunity to show their final results. Show exhibits are divided into both professional and non-professional categories so that the competition continues to encourage "Sunday painters".
The Mercer County Senior Art Show is presented each year by the Office on Aging/Department of Human Services, the Division of Culture and Heritage of Mercer County, and with the auspices of the County Executive Brian Hughes. This year's show was elegantly hosted by the Springpoint Foundation at Meadow Lakes in Hightstown, New Jersey.
The winners from this year's Mercer County Show will go on to the statewide show in the fall. Kate Somers, the jurist for this year's county show, has over 20 years experience and is currently the curator of the Bernstein Gallery at Princeton University. Somers remarked that her choices for this year's prize winners "resonated---each for a different reason."
We are proud to list the winners:
Acrylics--Non Professional
1. Beth K. Wham, "2011's Hot Models"
2. Frank M. Scarpati, "Roses"
Craft--Non Professional
1. Sue S. Chiu, "Lidded Basket Jar" clay craft
2. Katheryn Deguire, "Homage to Judy Stein" stained glass
Mixed Media--Non Professional
1. Ahuva Arie, "The Balcony" collage
2. Mary S. Johnson, "The Crocodile" mixed media
Oils--Non Professional
1. Richard Snarski, "Peter's Pool" oil
2. Norman Fesmire, "Sam" oil
Photography--Non Professional
1. Judy Filipponi, "Biding Time in the Village" digital photography
2. Anne Benedict, "The Great Egret is Landing" photography
Photography--Professional
1. Gerald P. Sternberg, "Tree of Life" photography
2. Walt Varan, "Untitled" photography
Watercolors--Professional
1. Suzanne M. Hunt, "It's a Hoot" watercolor
2. Margaret Rosen, "Prism" watercolor and ink
Watercolors--Non Professional
1. Terry Goldstein, "Village on the Hill" watercolor/gouache
2. Huiyi Huang, "Longlife & Happiness" watercolor
Works on Paper--Professional
1. Victoria Chu Moy, "Caryatid" Conte pencil
2. Robert Allard, "West Creek Chair house" pencil
Works on Paper--Non Professional
1. David T. Potts, "The Sea Maiden" pen and ink
2. Ming Ji, "Lakeside", Chinese ink
Special awards were presented to the following artists for their extraordinary efforts.
Best in Show:
*Frank Snarski, "Peter's Pool" oil
County Special Mention:
*Manfred Peil, "Untitled" pen and ink
Mercer County Intern's Award:
*David Potts, "The Sea Maiden" pen and ink
Wow! This show was terrific and everyone who participated deserves applause for a job well done.
Seniors rock!
Thursday, July 26, 2012
Rename Grandparent's Day?
Grandparent's Day is celebrated in September. Lately, it has been overshadowed as it falls the same time as memorial events for 9/11. Perhaps this is a good time to remarket the concept.
Grandparent's Day should be an occasion to gather family members and children around their elderly relatives. The idea is to share family heritage and traditions that might have been taken for granted or ignored because everyone is too busy and going their own way.
Having a warm fuzzy day honoring grandpas and grandmothers is welcome respite from our hard driving life styles, but today's culture just wants to get past the "grannie" part of the idea.
There is a current car commercial that features a senior couple heading for a beach party while the grown son is making his own dinner in a microwave:
"They always said I had the fun parents. Now where is the fun now?" The son is back home, and living with Mom and Dad, but reflects attitudes about growing old that are more mainstream today.
The stereotype of Gran knitting in her rocker, and Grandpa chewing on his pipe while reading the newspaper, are out of fashion. Today's baby boomers are trying to stay employed as long as possible and do not like to be reminded that they are headed out to the scrap heap.
The mention of "Grandparent's Day" is likely to be met with conscious denial by baby boomers not ready to retire. I know of an 84 year old who does not want to go to nutrition centers because that is where the "old people" are.
There is a need for the care and comfort and leadership which seniors supply without equal. However, getting this resource to the younger generation is the problem. If we see this as a delivery problem, as a marketing problem, maybe changing the name will update the concept.
Seniors have love and experience in abundance. Children left out because they don't have grandparents could be otherwise feel included if the celebration of love and tradition were just called something else....
Seniors rock.
Grandparent's Day should be an occasion to gather family members and children around their elderly relatives. The idea is to share family heritage and traditions that might have been taken for granted or ignored because everyone is too busy and going their own way.
Having a warm fuzzy day honoring grandpas and grandmothers is welcome respite from our hard driving life styles, but today's culture just wants to get past the "grannie" part of the idea.
There is a current car commercial that features a senior couple heading for a beach party while the grown son is making his own dinner in a microwave:
"They always said I had the fun parents. Now where is the fun now?" The son is back home, and living with Mom and Dad, but reflects attitudes about growing old that are more mainstream today.
The stereotype of Gran knitting in her rocker, and Grandpa chewing on his pipe while reading the newspaper, are out of fashion. Today's baby boomers are trying to stay employed as long as possible and do not like to be reminded that they are headed out to the scrap heap.
The mention of "Grandparent's Day" is likely to be met with conscious denial by baby boomers not ready to retire. I know of an 84 year old who does not want to go to nutrition centers because that is where the "old people" are.
There is a need for the care and comfort and leadership which seniors supply without equal. However, getting this resource to the younger generation is the problem. If we see this as a delivery problem, as a marketing problem, maybe changing the name will update the concept.
Seniors have love and experience in abundance. Children left out because they don't have grandparents could be otherwise feel included if the celebration of love and tradition were just called something else....
Seniors rock.
Saturday, July 21, 2012
From the Personal File: Medicaid Kranks Along
Sometime in the early spring, the knob that supports my walker handlebars snapped off. The maintenance man here at my apartment complex offered to repair it. After several days, he finally located a screw long and small enough to fit and installed it. In the meantime, the retailer who had supplied me with my original walker years ago gave me another without charge from a stock of used pieces.
This knobby issue was not to be the end of my troubles. The brake and cable on the left side sheared off leaving me with no brakes. Once again the retailer sat down for an estimate. Parts and labor were as formal as going to the automobile repair shop. The technique was about the same, the part wasn't too bad, but the labor (to attach a cable to the outside of the walker frame?) doubled the amount.
It looked like a new machine was the practical way out.
Enter Medicare and Medicaid. If you need a new mobility issue, there is a time limit. Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. Well I definitely made the time line and I was entitled to a new "mobility device". The next step was to get the doctor to write a prescription and fax to the retailer.
Glitch # 1. The retailer calls me and says that she can only give me a walker without a seat.
"What!" She explains that my Medicare "mobility" party will only pay for part of my rollator.
Glitch #2. I called my visiting nurse again and found out that she was leaving for another position outside the politically supervised agency supplying me with services, but, not to worry, the additional sum would be picked up by her office.
Flash to July. Now this has been going on since March.
My walker is now in pieces. It was merely dilapidated in March and by now it is dangerous.
Picture this: The brakes were gone, scotch tape wrapped and secured the cables away from the handles so I could grip them, one of the hooks of the wire basket attaching it to the walker had sheared off, the seat had broken off and now rested unsecured between two bars of the main frame, and the four hard rubber wheels were cut and ragged from rolling over Trenton's rough streets and cobblestones.
Glitch # 3. I called the retailer to see how soon I could pick up my replacement. The answer was not good. Since the script from the doctor, submitted to Medicare's "mobility" clearinghouse, left an amount not covered, they were not going to give it to me.
Glitch # 4. My visiting nurse director had not yet assigned me to another case worker. I got a letter this week advising me that they were assigning someone.....well... I had to call on Friday.
Glitch # 5. The worker answering the phone from another agency, (they had gone outside since they felt they were overloaded) who patiently explained to me she did not know what to do. (!) She was new to the situation and had to find out how to "handle" the situation.
Glitch # 6. When she found the papers to file or whom to contact, she would "get back to me".
I almost exploded. I explained to her that I cannot use a wheelchair due to my particular injuries, can't afford a powerchair ($60,000 for van, $10000 for lift, and $8000 for chair) and rely on my ten year old Hyundai and my Medicare walker to stay active in the community.
I also told her that my walker seat has served as my writing surface in class since desktops are not low enough for my peculiar situation....and that this past week was expecially hard for me. During my exam, the seat of my walker fell through the frame! My exam papers, calculator, pens and scratch paper went flying in a noisy jumble to the floor.
I was mortified.
Aside from being forty years older than the next oldest student, I try to stay out of the way with my walker, huddled against a wall in a front chair so I don't take up much room. There was no way that my situation could escape notice this exam day! I was embarrassed and distressed. I was also frustrated...but by the time I could get home to phone, any office contact would be fruitless because most Trenton offices close at 4pm. Needless to say, my call to nursing services commenced first thing the next day.
As of this moment in time, I need a working rollator. I can use the frame to roll down the hall, but the seat is not attached and there are no brakes so it is not safe to use.
I guess I have no alternative than to wait until that Monday call with an update.
It started with a knob, and now is a heck of an example of how disconnected, (Yeah, Lord!) disconnected the system has become. The total cost of a premium walker with seat and push bar is around $250. We are probably talking about $50 dollars difference between Medicare and Medicaid....so what the heck is the problem? If they gave me a wheelchair, it would be in the thousands....
I wonder if nursing services might not want to replace the two case workers who left since they handled the problem by moving cases into other outside agencies....just wondering is this is after all an administrative economy move.
Just wondering....and things krank, krank, krank along. (That is the sound of my walker kreaking and kranking along...)
Oh, I offered to expedite things by advancing the difference between Medicare and the visiting nurse share and was told ......there is no provision to reimburse patients!
Man, this system sucks.
Seniors rock!
This knobby issue was not to be the end of my troubles. The brake and cable on the left side sheared off leaving me with no brakes. Once again the retailer sat down for an estimate. Parts and labor were as formal as going to the automobile repair shop. The technique was about the same, the part wasn't too bad, but the labor (to attach a cable to the outside of the walker frame?) doubled the amount.
It looked like a new machine was the practical way out.
Enter Medicare and Medicaid. If you need a new mobility issue, there is a time limit. Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. Well I definitely made the time line and I was entitled to a new "mobility device". The next step was to get the doctor to write a prescription and fax to the retailer.
Glitch # 1. The retailer calls me and says that she can only give me a walker without a seat.
"What!" She explains that my Medicare "mobility" party will only pay for part of my rollator.
Glitch #2. I called my visiting nurse again and found out that she was leaving for another position outside the politically supervised agency supplying me with services, but, not to worry, the additional sum would be picked up by her office.
Flash to July. Now this has been going on since March.
My walker is now in pieces. It was merely dilapidated in March and by now it is dangerous.
Picture this: The brakes were gone, scotch tape wrapped and secured the cables away from the handles so I could grip them, one of the hooks of the wire basket attaching it to the walker had sheared off, the seat had broken off and now rested unsecured between two bars of the main frame, and the four hard rubber wheels were cut and ragged from rolling over Trenton's rough streets and cobblestones.
Glitch # 3. I called the retailer to see how soon I could pick up my replacement. The answer was not good. Since the script from the doctor, submitted to Medicare's "mobility" clearinghouse, left an amount not covered, they were not going to give it to me.
Glitch # 4. My visiting nurse director had not yet assigned me to another case worker. I got a letter this week advising me that they were assigning someone.....well... I had to call on Friday.
Glitch # 5. The worker answering the phone from another agency, (they had gone outside since they felt they were overloaded) who patiently explained to me she did not know what to do. (!) She was new to the situation and had to find out how to "handle" the situation.
Glitch # 6. When she found the papers to file or whom to contact, she would "get back to me".
I almost exploded. I explained to her that I cannot use a wheelchair due to my particular injuries, can't afford a powerchair ($60,000 for van, $10000 for lift, and $8000 for chair) and rely on my ten year old Hyundai and my Medicare walker to stay active in the community.
I also told her that my walker seat has served as my writing surface in class since desktops are not low enough for my peculiar situation....and that this past week was expecially hard for me. During my exam, the seat of my walker fell through the frame! My exam papers, calculator, pens and scratch paper went flying in a noisy jumble to the floor.
I was mortified.
Aside from being forty years older than the next oldest student, I try to stay out of the way with my walker, huddled against a wall in a front chair so I don't take up much room. There was no way that my situation could escape notice this exam day! I was embarrassed and distressed. I was also frustrated...but by the time I could get home to phone, any office contact would be fruitless because most Trenton offices close at 4pm. Needless to say, my call to nursing services commenced first thing the next day.
As of this moment in time, I need a working rollator. I can use the frame to roll down the hall, but the seat is not attached and there are no brakes so it is not safe to use.
I guess I have no alternative than to wait until that Monday call with an update.
It started with a knob, and now is a heck of an example of how disconnected, (Yeah, Lord!) disconnected the system has become. The total cost of a premium walker with seat and push bar is around $250. We are probably talking about $50 dollars difference between Medicare and Medicaid....so what the heck is the problem? If they gave me a wheelchair, it would be in the thousands....
I wonder if nursing services might not want to replace the two case workers who left since they handled the problem by moving cases into other outside agencies....just wondering is this is after all an administrative economy move.
Just wondering....and things krank, krank, krank along. (That is the sound of my walker kreaking and kranking along...)
Oh, I offered to expedite things by advancing the difference between Medicare and the visiting nurse share and was told ......there is no provision to reimburse patients!
Man, this system sucks.
Seniors rock!
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