How does the elderly care system work in the USA?

Фото: Depositphotos

My acquaintance with medicine in the United States began as a translator. It was this part-time job that I chose in the first months after moving to the States, translating to medical appointments, communicating with the medical staff and even in the operating rooms.

The first thing that shocked me in American medicine is that an old poor grandmother who uses social insurance Medicare, and a millionaire who came to be treated from overseas for a lot of money - all, as a rule, spend 10 minutes at the doctor and wait an hour for service, and the millionaire had to wait even longer until the hospital checked the availability of the deposit.

Unlike Kyiv, where it is impossible to confuse private and public hospitals, they are so different, almost all hospitals in the USA are private, but the patient’s expenses are paid from different sources - his own pocket, private insurance or from the state. And the money is considerable. Buying insurance is often burdensome for families. If a family's income is slightly above average, it loses the right to Social Security and must pay several hundred dollars a month for it itself.

My friend Tatyana teaches several courses at the university and has a husband who is the deputy head of a men’s clothing company. Insurance for both of them costs about $500 a month. To reduce the burden and avoid being fined, they buy insurance for less than a full year. Even private insurance usually does not cover the costs completely.

“You don’t understand - even if you have insurance, the bills keep coming,” Tatyana complains.

The topic of the medical system is a sensitive one in the United States; it is actively discussed in society and is a mandatory element of party political programs. Even at the Miss USA beauty pageant, the winner was embarrassed by a question about medicine, and her answer that healthcare was a luxury, not a human right, caused a lot of noise on social media.

“To have access to insurance, you must first have a job,” the beauty explained, but after criticism from the press, she changed her mind and simply noted that she considered herself lucky to have insurance because she worked for the government.

Newly crowned Miss USA Kara McCullough is being criticized for saying health care is a "privilege." https://t.co/p99kWhwO0u pic.twitter.com/6mrVz2PRFr

- Fox News (@FoxNews) May 15, 2017

For older people, the situation is very different. Caring for the elderly in the United States is a high priority, and social programs cover much more than the cost of treatment.

If a person older than 65 has not been able to manage the household independently, take care of himself and his housing and does not have the money to pay for these services, then the state pays for this care.

His trustee can be anyone. One day a young woman came to see a doctor with her grandmother.

“What a caring relative!” I thought. Subsequently, it turned out that the grandmother was lonely, and a neighbor was taking care of her, who devoted several hours a day to this and received payment from social services.

Фото: Depositphotos

Often, someone in the family takes care of the senior relative, receiving compensation from the state. At the same time, a social worker regularly visits such a family and carefully checks whether an elderly person is being offended. If, for example, the grandmother, whom the son-in-law is caring for, has minor complaints about him, then the social worker takes such complaints very seriously and may forbid the son-in-law to continue to act as a guardian.

The pay for care is decent. For example, a friend of mine, an accountant, a middle-aged woman, was able to quit her job and take care of her old mother for 3 years.

Indeed, a society is judged by how it cares for its elderly. Young people are mainly guided by Amosov’s principle of “get your health yourself” and are actively involved in sports and disease prevention.

The original article is published on the website “Voice of America"And reprinted with permission of the author.

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