Health Care Comments

I've started reading Mike Critelli's "Open Mike" blog. His insight into health care issues is excellent. Mike was CEO of Pitney Bowes. I know him personally, and he is very, very intelligent. Here's a link to his blog. The most recent one is on dialysis and Medicare.

http://www.mikecritelli.com/

New Transportation Options for Seniors

New York City is going to use school buses to take seniors to the grocery store. I love the idea of using idle school buses, but an article in the New York Times made it sound like some seniors are dubious. The city is also going to use a taxi voucher program.

Here in Darien, Connecticut, we've introduced a taxi voucher program so that our older residents can ride in Everyready Taxis for half fare. Call Darien Social Services for more information:
Olive Hauser at 656-7328, e-mail her at ohauser@darienct.gov or visit the Town Hall Social Services office.

What do you think are the best options we can give to seniors to help those who can't drive?

Here is a link to the NY Times article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/26/nyregion/26elders.html

Synopsis:

New York Region

School Buses May Give Older New Yorkers a Lift

By SIMON AKAM

Published: August 26, 2009

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced an initiative that would help New Yorkers who are 60 and older with transportation and would renovate senior centers.

Cement for Spine Fractures May Not Work

Here is another real-world example of how the health care industry forges ahead with new treatments and technology that drive up costs, while never knowing how well they work. This is why health care has become so expensive that many of us can't afford it.

A study of the cement used for spinal fractures shows that it may work no better than a placebo. Rest and pain killers work just as well. To learn more, read about the study in the New York Times.

Health / Research

Studies Question Using Cement for Spine Injuries

By DENISE GRADY

Published: August 6, 2009

Research into effectiveness of a procedure in use since the 1990s comes as the Obama administration calls for assessing how health care money is spent.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/06/health/research/06spine.html

Disabled Vet Helps Disabled Vet

West Haven, CT –

When Carl MacLeod joined the Disabled Veterans of America, he knew he wanted to give back to other veterans like himself. Little did he know that soon he would find himself on the receiving end of help. Diagnosed in 2004 with chronic solvent encephalopathy, also known as “Gulf War Syndrome,” Carl became unable to work as a plant maintenance manager at Clairol. He was also unable to continue to renovate his fixer-upper house in West Haven, Connecticut, to be handicap accessible. Fate interfered further when his elderly father suffered a debilitating heart attack, and Carl and his wife, Kristy, discovered multiple bureaucracies blocking their access to adequate disability payments.

Carl and Kristy are now living in a half-gutted home along with four of their six children. They have also taken in Carl’s frail parents. Carl has good days in addition to the bad ones. He still manages to assist other disabled vets by coordinating their transportation and helping them fill out disability forms. It’s through the volunteer work for Disabled Veterans of America that another vet, Henry Racki, became aware of Carl’s plight and realized he might be able to provide a solution.

“I wanted to give back to someone who gave to his country,” said Henry, owner of Rockfall Construction, a disabled-veteran-held company. Rockfall does home renovations and builds and installs Practical Assisted Living Solutions (“PALS”) modular additions through its Ready Living Structures Division.

“Anyone who wants to enable aging parents or a disabled loved one to live at home instead of in an institution can attach a PALS modular addition to their house and provide a safe, secure, handicap accessible living environment,” said Henry. “These additions provide independence because they easily meet people’s special needs at a fraction of the cost of assisted living or a nursing home.”

Henry visited Carl with the idea of donating a PALS addition to him, but once he saw how much Carl was trying to do for his family and for others, the extent of the work that needed to be done on the MacLeod home, and the series of unfortunate events that had befallen them, he wanted to do more. “It was like the ‘finger of fate’ had really gone after this guy. And the system had abandoned them.”

Without sufficient disability pay or Carl’s salary, the family is living under a load of debt and cannot take on more. Kristy has a job as an office manager but in this economy is fearful of losing it.

Henry has refused to stand by. He got together with Dick Schmidt, owner of ProBuilt Modular Homes in Mifflintown, PA, and developed a plan to provide Carl and his family with a PALS unit for their home. “I’m now assisting the MacLeods to complete the entire renovation project. We’ve done a plot plan and a master construction plan, secured the zoning variances and building permits, and are preparing the ground for the PALS addition. This is like an ‘Extreme Makeover Home Edition’, but we don’t have TV sponsors picking up the tab.”

Henry’s company can only do so much. He is actively looking for veterans organizations, church groups, other contractors, supply companies or just good people to donate time, talent, materials or funding to facilitate the completion of MacLeods’ home makeover. He estimates that it will cost $40,000 to bring the MacLeod home up to code and provide accessible living to Carl and his parents.

Anyone who would like to help – or knows an organization that can – should contact Henry Racki at 860-790-6291 or email him at: henry@rockfallco.com.

Kristy MacLeod said in a letter to Henry that he “was truly God sent” and that she and her family will be “forever grateful” to any organization that can help them.