Re: Subsidizing a health care provider on site - dose it attract the already frail? | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: Martin Sheehy (martinsheehyyahoo.com) | |
Date: Thu, 27 Apr 2006 10:15:03 -0700 (PDT) |
And here is the foundation of ' how it [ could] work ': Martin Sheehy <martinsheehy [at] yahoo.com> wrote: I have thought some more on this and have added to my Google blog: " American Medicne: Unhealthy at ANY Cost " ths piece: Medicalizng Everything. My memory of my early years are vague. There is semi-oblivion for those several years immedately after my advent to this planet by means of birth. I hope for the same before I exit. In fact I think that ' dotage ' is the human organism's way of preparng for this exit. It ( dotage ), of course has been medicalized as Alkzeimer's Disease, pre-senile dementia, etc. & a great healthcare industry has resulted, which has impeded Society looing at this period in our waning lives as a time deserving of as much attention, perhaps, as infancy & childhood. ( At least, in infancy one is guarenteed the presence of a mother--if not a father always present--to CARE for our needs.) Society has left this old-age period of life to the attention of doctors & institutions. Wrong move!. The Health'care' industry underserves us from infancy to old-age, so why would they improve their results ( " outcomes ") for us in our age?. [ " If I had served my God with half the zeal with which I have served my King, He would not, in mine age, left me naked to mine enemies ", said Cardinal Woolsey in Shakespeare's Henry VIII.] Death, taxes, & old-age should NOT be the purview of this Health'care' industry. They should be excluded from ' management ' of our old-ages & our deaths!. I would worry also, givng their lousy record, of having them responsible for my taxes. Better left to Turbo-Tax & accountants who operate under GAAP ( which doctors & institutions should take a look at as a model of respectability & responsible accountabilty----which they won't, thus, makng the urgency of removing aging CARE from them that much more acute!.) AND, the insurance companies which benefit from our agings & deaths should be alerted to this fact ( as if they already don't know): The health'care' industry is wasteful of our healthCARE dollar ( at ALL times), but we baby-boomers now want, & demand, CARE, of a responsible & accountable nature ' in our age ', rather than being ' left naked to our enemies ', viz. doctors & institutions. There is an answer: " Assisted CARE " cohousing communites, where the aging parent ( in the absence of a dutiful son) owns the LIVING space ( of ' assisted living ' ) in the way of a deed to property in an ' assisted CARE ' community, &, therefore, more of the long-term CARE insurance dollars can be assigned to that which really matters---CARE!. MCS. 4/27/2006. Sharon Villines <sharon [at] sharonvillines.com> wrote: On Apr 25, 2006, at 12:59 PM, Martin Sheehy wrote: > CoHousing is an excellent milieu for piloting a healthCARE delivery > system that truly meets the needs of the communities---elderly and > not-so-elderly, as all are underserved by the current health"care" ' > system '. > Even affording some healthcare providers some use of the Common > House, eiither to remain onsite, in community, lodge ( at least > part-time) to meet the needs of the frailer members of some > communities would not only be ' cutting edge ' but surely better than > the alternative, This is a similar issue to "accessible" features like level floors -- no unnecessary steps or high thresholds or '"creative" surface changes. These features are important for parents with strollers, teenagers with broken legs, babies learning to walk, etc. Things like double handrails on stairways -- one for adults and one for children under four would make stairs much, much safer for all. While accessibility may be permanently important to people with MS, missing limbs, arthritis, etc, it is temporarily important to everyone. Subsidized health care provider onsite would also be helpful for all ages -- caring for sick children, for example. But the size of cohousing community necessary to subsidize such a person would be larger than the ideal 25-30 units. The community would have to build a unit as part of the common elements, thus adding to the cost. Chuck Durrett discusses this as part of Senior Cohousing communities where the guest suites are larger so they can accommodate extended stays by health care aids and family members. In the instances he mentions, they come and go, however. They are not permanent residents. I tried designing a parent-cooperative day care center within the community to care for the kids under school age, those home sick for the day, and those off for teacher conference days (which become more numerous every year). The idea was to hire a full-time person and use common space or rent a vacant unit (we had one) and have a parent also present. We have a lot of parents with flexible or non-9-5 schedules even though they work full-time. The inspiration was a shared nanny for the first two babies born into the community who used the kids room in the commonhouse. It was wonderful because everyone could stop in and say hello to the babies (and teach them tricks like how to high-five) and it was much less isolating for the nanny who became a part of the community. The commonhouse was much more alive then. But the emphasis on diversity that cohousing values also means that the parents parenting styles and preferences are diverse. Finding a nanny that was acceptable to all was impossible. And financially we needed buy-in from all of them to make it work. Perhaps in a community where all the kids had been born into cohousing and in a community where there was less diversity, it might work. The parents would have to be committed to working it out. In an urban area where parents had many alternatives, not enough of them were. I think the same thing would be true of a relatively permanent on-site healthcare provider. Sharon ----- Sharon Villines Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC http://www.takomavillage.org _________________________________________________________________ Cohousing-L mailing list -- Unsubscribe, archives and other info at: http://www.cohousing.org/cohousing-L/
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Re: Subsidizing a health care provider on site - dose it attract the already frail? Martin Sheehy, April 27 2006
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Re: Subsidizing a health care provider on site - dose it attract the already frail? Saramandaia Farm, April 29 2006
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Insurance-free healthcare ken, April 30 2006
- Re: Insurance-free healthcare Martin Sheehy, April 30 2006
- Re: Insurance-free healthcare ken, April 30 2006
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Insurance-free healthcare ken, April 30 2006
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Re: Subsidizing a health care provider on site - dose it attract the already frail? Saramandaia Farm, April 29 2006
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