The USA's Institutional Disrespect for the Elderly

In 2009 when I returned for what was to be a three year stay with my parents, my father was using a cane. My mother was, at that point, walking unassisted.

A couple of years later both of them got walkers.

We later learned that both of them had received walkers which did not fit.  My father, a tall man, had received a walker that was too small, forcing him to stoop.  My mother, a short person, had received a walker which was too tall, forcing her to walk on her toes.

Somehow, for two years, no one noticed this error--not the doctors, not the nurses, and not even the physical therapists.  Oh, sorry, there was one therapist who noticed my father's mis-fit; she suggested I take a power tool and adjust the handle of my father's walker upward.  Not being skilled with power tools, I was reluctant to damage my father's walker.  (There is, in fact, a world of presumption in her suggestion.  I have never owned a drill, and have rarely used one; but never mind, that's what comes from being a member of the precariat.)

Finally, my parents were forced to purchase new walkers.  Because the USA health system is cheap, stingy, and refused to recognize the error which had been made.  In other words, my parents paid for someone else's error. (How like the crisis!)

And, of course, the manufacturers of medical devices made a double profit on this error.

Now, the same thing has happened with the hospital beds my parents are using.

Several years ago, early in the morning I was awoken by my mother's startled scream.  My father had fallen out of bed.  By some miracle, I managed to lift him back into the bed.  About this time, my father had a stroke, and he needed all the help I could manage to provide.   (Today my father is frail, and falling out of bed would be very dangerous.)

Hospital beds have railing, which itself can be dangerous, but also can prevent falling out of bed.

I remember when my father's bed was delivered.  It was just before Christmas, and, as holidays (time off from work) are such a rare thing in the USA, I was sympathetic to the plight of the men delivering the bed.

Now, more than two years later, my mother has informed me that the bed they delivered had the wrong mattress, and it was set up incorrectly.

So, who will pay for the new mattress?

Here we go again.  Double profits for the greedy capitalist firms, and another hole in the meagre savings of an elderly couple.

Shame. Shame. Shame.

The USA system of medical care is nothing to be proud of.

As Richard D Wolff remarked recently, this miserable and ineffective system of medical care is proof of what a profit-based capitalism produces.  In fact, I would add, the sort of stories I've told above very much remind me of the fabled inefficiency of "communism".....

I recently heard a doctor bragging about the quality of USA medical care. Yeah, for the rich, it works fine.  But the system, as a system for everyone (why, wouldn't that be what you'd expect in a real democracy?..duhhhh....) doesn't work.  I could say a few things about the stilted mind-set and emotional life a person who is proud of this system, but let's just say that he's missing something..........