Health / Senior Care and Veterans

Senior Home Inspections

   There is an issue with our senior care facilities. An ongoing trend in these commercial run institutions is to commit fraud and not give proper care to the elderly residents. Our retirement homes are defrauding our loved ones by over-purchasing medicines and billing you the difference. These medications are repackaged by the home's pharmacy, so they cannot be returned to manufacturers if you demand it. They change doctor's orders, because they are allowed to, and increase the amount prescribed so they can restock their pharmacy on your dime.

   They also have structured their care plans so that you cannot afford to pay them to actually treat your elderly family member. The only plans that are affordable is the equivalent of having an orderly remind your family to take care of themselves. And this sort of plan can run into the hundreds of dollars per month.

   In the 2014 election cycle I had a fellow candidate email me a link to the Maryland ombudsman program. I asked her why she sent that link and she told me something about how this program can look into matters regarding senior care. My point that I don't think she understood was that no one was handling the problem and that the ombudsman program was not taking care of the issue.

Aging in place

   To be a little candid, people want to die at home; not in some senior home or hospice. I get that but to be rather blunt, you simply are not allowed to. Medical costs are too high and you can't afford to stay in home till the very end. The other problem is that there are actual laws that state you cannot sell your estate to pay for medical bills. So what ends up happening is you mortgage your property to the hilt and leave your family with a financial nightmare when trying to settle the estate.

   And NO a reverse mortgage is not using equity of your home; your home has no equity. There is nothing reverse about a reverse mortgage, it is a normal mortgage that must be repaid and your kids will be left with that bill after you have passed. There is no way for you to access any equity you may have in any property, we are peons and not allowed access to the same financial products as the wealthy and upper class.

Medical Records

   Your medical records are now stored online by corporations like Microsoft where they are vulnerable and available to any hacker or marketing firm as your information is sold to advertisers. You are not allowed to see your own information and must access any information through your doctors or the corporate website. Yet everyone else can access them instead.

   Traditionally records have always been maintained by the individual doctor's office and as you changed doctors you'd have to tell your new doctor who the old one was to get the records. Like the marketing information listed below, I'd rather have your records secured locally where You can access your own records and no one can tell you that you can't see your own information.

Direct Marketing of Pharmaceuticals

   The era of advertising drugs to consumers need to end. We are the last nation in the world to even allow this and it is a stupid and confusing practice. Why on earth would you ask a hypochondriac population to ask their doctors about any form of medication.

   Not only that but the range of side effects and complications in drugs now are horrendous. It is now more dangerous to be on the medication than it is to be sick. There are birth control pills that make your skin more clear but will kill you. Drugs to stop smoking that will give you TB or other fungal infections. And I wish I could remember the ad for a pill that made you suicidal and homicidal, great you'll kill yourself and take everybody out with you.

   I would have all materials, advertising and samples sent to the health department for verification. Anyone wanting materials (patients or doctors) can get them from there.

Insurance

   Even though the individual mandate had been rescinded, there is still the issue of what doctors yo can visit with what insurance plan. I'd toss that out, in Carroll County anyone can visit any doctor and all doctors must take all insurance plans. With or without the mandate, how can anyone get treatment from the doctor they want to or have been with for years, if companies keep changing who you can visit and if the treatment would be covered. It's stupid and the practice should never have even started in the first place.

   If there is such a concern for whether or not the doctor is qualified for the requested services, that is what the medical licensing is for. If the State cannot monitor doctors for patient safety and reliability, I won't trust money-changers at the insurance company to do it either.

Veteran Social Support

   I have a serious problem with those flag lapel pin wearing patriot nuts that assume you aren't a good American if you can't utter the phrase 'Thank you for your service' like it was 'Amen'. I'll say this just once, I built the equipment that saved soldier's lives. There, you can't be more patriotic than me, measuring contest over.

Veteran Healthcare

   We have a serious need to give medical treatment to ailing and elderly veterans of current and previous wars. But what does the VA do, sit them in room or put them on a list and wait till they die; it has become standard operating procedure. Locally there was a plan to turn an old National Guard building into a clinic that has gotten bogged down in disagreements between who is doing what and who is paying for it.

   I have a simple solution, let veterans use any doctor/clinic to fulfill VA benefits than using their hospitals or clinics. Just treat the VA as another insurance company and have the doctors file the claims with VA like they do with existing insurance or Medicare.

Veteran Drug Court

   I'd close them, not because I don't want them to get treatment but rather it is our government and military that has caused their trauma. Without adequate treatment they are forced to seek self-medication through either pain-killers or illegal drugs.

   All cases should be transferred to appropriate medical facilities and hold the VA and military responsible for the bill. Their mistake, their clean up; about time they own it.