Friday, July 25, 2025

You bring your elderly parent to the doctor and you say I cannot take care of my dad he needs lifting he needs help in the bathroom he needs help feeding everything I have my own kids I have my own job I have my own family there is no social support only if you are wealthy can you buy that privately your primary care doctor cannot suggest that your dad should get admitted to a nursing home and that Medicare can cover I when I work on the inpatient side of things cannot go see your dad down in the Ed and suggest oh what he needs is help with daily activities of living he should go to a nursing home no I have to admit him to the hospital 

failure to thrive

. . . even though as a doctor do not believe in that so that the case manager can now send out a prior authorization as long as he has stayed in the hospital for at least two nights and you're not paying the observation rate you were paying the inpatient rate because they only accept from inpatient this is what drains our money in this country and you know where that money is being drained first the American people we are putting Americans and so much debt through this system and the hospital is making a profit and it does not go to physician salaries you can bet on that I have admitted patients before Medicare doesn't even want to cover anyway now we're looking at other options like Medicaid in order to in order to qualify for Medicaid you have to make no money at all and buy money I'm not talking about the cash flowing in I'm talking about everything you want your car your house your savings that you've worked your butt off your entire life things you want to pass down to your kids after you die yeah I guess what you have to do with those things you have to do what's called "spend down," 

spend all your assets

You have to sell that car.  You have to sell that house.  You have to be poor enough to qualify for Medicaid in this country so that you can go die with grace in a nursing home.  We are so jaded, and this happens all the time and we know it's wrong we just live with the system cuts to Medicaid cut what we are charging people who make $30,000 a year and supporting their family we are charging them tens of thousands of dollars people in the United States work until they die this is a non-partisan issue.  We are all human beings.  As a citizen, you should be taken care of by your government at the end of life, especially if you paid taxes your entire life and you're promised Medicare.


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