Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Insurance-free healthcare

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

On Apr 30, 2006, at 5:15 PM, Saramandaia Farm wrote:

> Here in  Costa Rica, every town or village has a "health unit", where 
> routine  stuff is done...well-baby care, immunizations, monthly 
> glucose testing  for diabetics, BP readings for hypertensives, Pap 
> smears, sometimes  prenantal visits, and immediate care not requiring 
> transport to a  hospital.  Saves everyone (most of the people here 
> don't have  cars) a trip to facilities half an hour or more away.   
> Emergencies, serious health problems, and complications of pregnancy 
> or  labor are dealt with at the national hospitals.  The nurses
>  and  docs at the village/town level pretty much know the 
> patients...they're  neighbors.

I think this is a wonderful idea and has been done in large retirement 
communities that include life-time health care. The problem for 
cohousing communities is that they would have to be very large (over a 
100 units?) to support such a center. Although in a community with a 
commercial space, using it for this purpose would be great because the 
health unit could then be open to the neighborhood and more likely to 
have enough traffic to support it.

My touchiness about "turning cohousing into assisted living" is that 
people keep suggesting that if a community is composed of people over 
55, it needs more health care than people under 55. This is not 
supported by my experience of cohousing. Our community has approx 23 of 
57 adults who are 55-85. None of those people have ever used our TLC 
program of taking in meals, for example, and all of them are 
proportionately more active in workshare than those under 55. Even 
those with serious physical challenges are fully contributing members 
of the community. Without that age group, our facilities would fall 
down and our landscape would be weeds and we would have no meals.

The number two reason the younger people participate less is health 
related -- getting pregnant, being pregnant, post-partum care, 
child-care, sick child-care, sick parent care, and cancer treatment are 
the major debilitations. Both men and women claim all the pregnancy 
related and child related debiliites. Job pressures are number one but 
not by much.

I think a health unit would be most supportive for parents whose 
children need attention --"Is she really sick?" being on the top of the 
list. Older people know if they are sick and can just go to bed. As 
community Nana, I probably have a greater awareness of of the child 
care health needs than many but it's still the major need for health 
care in the community. A sick parent can't just go to bed--they need a 
lot of help.

Sharon
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Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org