Healthcare and Elections

This is a picture of my Dad, he died in 2003 from the devatating disease of Alzheimers and dementia. A decorated Purple Heart Veteran from WWII and Korea. I have his burial flag from President Bush and the United States Military for the service he gave to his nation. I display it honorably in my living room. His name was Jack and I loved him more than anyone will know. This quiet veteran kept many secrets on what he went through in WWII that raised me is the real reason behind this post.

This post has nothing to do with the current election process. It has more to do with future elections and where this nation will head in those elections. Healthcare. Pure and simple.

When the fact of your elderly parents that raised you in the 1960’s, 1970’s and even the 1980’s start to get sick with age then healthcare is more important than ever. Healthcare is what keeps mom and dad around and one political party is against national healthcare and one is not. Stuffing your mom or dad in a corner is the only answer the right wing side of politics is offering where the left is telling you that there is a better way! What avenue would your own parents have chosen for you when you were a child that was sick? The best choice or just the screw you of politics from the right wing party of where it just isn’t important or they just don’t care? That is so far from Christian thought processes where you honor your mother and father that it is not even funny!

This was an interesting story over at MSNBC News about the caring for our elderly population…

When Your Aging Parents Need You

Caregiving can bring guilt and anxiety—and it can be a gift as well.
By Sally Wadyka for MSN Health & Fitness

For most children, their parents are the people in charge of taking care of them from infancy and even into adulthood. Mom and Dad were there to bandage your boo-boos, sing you to sleep, and soothe you when you were sick. But as the population ages—and more are afflicted with age-related diseases such as Alzheimer's, stroke and cancer—the tables are often turned on parents and their now-adult children.

According to statistics from the National Institute on Aging, there were 37 million people age 65 or older in 2006; that's about 12 percent of the population. But by 2030, as the Baby Boomer generation ages, that number is predicted to rise dramatically. Projections forecast that approximately 71.5 million people—about 20 percent of the population—will be 65 or older. Alzheimer's disease currently affects 5 million Americans, and strokes, which also afflict about 5 million people, are the number-one cause of adult disability. - MSNBC

Make no mistake about it, when your mom or dad gets seriously sick and you as the child face it head on, it is an overwhelming life changing event to you as the child. My own father passed from the effects of Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. There was no help for him from anyone but my family during those first initial years of the disease. You feel lost, helpless, and frustrated as your parent fades into oblivion. You are crushed when he or she no longer remembers your name even. Then you read in the papers, blogs, news web sites and everywhere else where science and research is stifled because of politics not only for your own parents illness but many other peoples illness by your own government. Politics and research are two things that should never mix. One is lying to get the ends of your means and the other is researching to find a solution to stopping the end of ones means.

In my own Dad’s case he drowned in his own fluids eventually. Something I would never wish on anyone. That is the fate for a larger than life population of America if research is not in thoughts of our elected leaders. This is a double edged sword, pharmaceutical companies need to invest in such research but the expansion of research must lead into other avenues of science in America. That is where the National Institute of Health comes into play. Breakthroughs in science are possible but it has to be funded by the people representing the people in our government.

The future welfare of this nation is not about us, the children of the greatest generation but how we tackle the illnesses facing the greatest generation. It all comes down to healthcare. One party wants to give that gift to all and the other wants to shun you to the grave.

You decide? And your children will decide, and so will there children over time. No matter what political philosophy you follow, there is not one single American that wants to hear that there is nothing more they can do for their mother or father from their parents doctor. Especially, when research was gouged, gutted, and nailed to the cross of politics.

When we as a people get the fact that Healthcare is really important in America then we will see that only one political party is interested in changing the way we all look at it in America.

Americans need to think out of the box and I hate that phrase. Look at your sister or brother and think that one in three will face many medical issues in their life that could take their life. Many of which could be detected early and prolong their life. In the next couple of decades, science as we don’t know it now could cure the polio of our time that is Alzheimer’s disease but our government and our elected leaders need to get behind it. Research in science is important to your future healthcare and your children’s future. You vote our elected leaders in, vote for the people that can change the status quo. Not just nationally but locally!

For now, could we think more about healthcare in America in this election or is it something for the next generation of politicians to tackle? How soon are you going to need the kind of serious health care my dad needed?

Papamoka