I have to ask myself, “Why, in this rich country, are we even talking about cutting the Medicare program for assisted daily living, which keeps the elderly and disabled in their homes?”  And “Why is the Senate talking about ending a health care safety net for poor children?”  However, having closely watched the United States political-social-economic system evolve from the vibrant capitalism and Great Society programs of the 1960s to its current form of decadent plutocracy, I am not surprised that the U.S. Congress is about to cut benefits for the elderly and end the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIPS). 

Benefits for keeping the elderly and disabled in their homes through home health care currently comprise 3.7% of the Medicare budget.  Under the current Senate health care reform proposal, this program is slated to absorb 10% of cuts in Medicare.  Medical device manufacturers, drug companies, and insurance companies, will continue to scam the health care system at a rate that renders any home health care benefits trivial in the overall scheme of things.

The Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIPs) would be repealed under current proposals (as passed by the House and as debated in the Senate).  Poor families would be forced to buy health insurance in the health insurance exchange likely to emerge from a final health care bill.  Good luck with that!  According to Marian Wright Edelman of The Children’s Defense Fund, “Children by the millions are going to be worse rather than better off.”