Everett, Wash.
Published: Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Medicare's good coverage should be expanded to all

John Burbank

 As I write this column, I am in Vermont taking care of my injured and elderly parents. Last month my dad fell and broke his hip. So now between the two of them, my parents have three artificial hips and two artificial knees. Not to mention the toll that age inevitably takes on memory, acuity, and just getting up and moving around.

Our modern advances in health care enable people to live a lot longer than a generation before. Previously, if you broke your hip when you were in your late eighties, most likely you would be confined to bed, and in your weakened state, get some sort of infection or pneumonia, and more than likely die from that. But now, your old hip is taken out, a new one is put in, and you are hobbling around in a week.

What becomes a concern is not so much the medical advances, but the ability of social services to keep up with people's aging and health. That's the rub. We can keep people alive. Can we make sure they have a good quality of life?

We can try, and that is why I am in Vermont this week. For most families, the best caregivers are within the family itself - sons and daughters caring for their parents, spouses caring for spouses, parents caring for kids. But our state Legislature left out care for family members when it passed family leave insurance this past spring. Only those with generous leave policies, like myself, can afford to take off from work to care for their family members. Once family leave insurance includes this sort of leave, then leave to care for family members will be a responsibility for and a right of all workers, as it should be.

My parents, like many people in their late eighties, are stoic, stubborn, and determined to lead independent lives with dignity. They are feisty.

They do not want to "go gentle into that good night."

During their lives, they raised four children, cared for their own parents, provided role models for how we live our own lives, helped build the national economy, and fought in and lived through World War II. Now it is our turn to insure that they continue to live full lives. After all, no one can say that the day in the life of an 80 year old is of any less or more intrinsic value than the day in the life of a 40 year old or the day in the life of a 4 year old. Indeed, the morality of democracy teaches us that no day or individual or time of life is more important or privileged than another.

So my parents choose to be independent, but they know they are slowing down and need help. That is where our democracy steps in and helps. After I got my folks back home, the home health care nurse showed up and checked out my Dad. Two hours later the physical therapist came and walked him through his exercises. They treated my parents with respect and kindness. They were caring, full of good humor, professional, and thorough. They embodied dignity in their work and brought dignity to their patients.

What does this have to do with democracy? Their services are completely paid for by Medicare. For that matter, my father's surgery, hospital stay, and rehabilitation services were all paid for by Medicare. Think of what our world would be like if the Medicare program, which is really a government-paid single-payer system of health coverage, didn't exist. A lot of people, and an especially large number of old people, would die for lack of health care. Life would be shorter and meaner. That's why politicians run into buzzsaws when they try to "privatize" Medicare. Why would we want to jeopardize this health system, this life support, for our parents?

In fact, if Medicare works for my parents, why not for people in their early sixties? How about people in their late fifties? What about kids when they are born? The logic is powerful. Medicare works. Let's make it work for all of us. That should be possible in the wealthiest in the nation in the world!

John Burbank, executive director of the Economic Opportunity Institute (www.eoionline.org), writes every other Wednesday. Write to him in care of the institute at 1900 Northlake Way, Suite 237, Seattle, WA 98103. His e-mail address is john@eoionline.org.
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