Health Care Reform Part II: Maurauding Seniors Invade Town Hall

Many of the seniors showing up at congressional town hall meetings on health care reform – at least those drawing the media’s attention seemed to be in serious need of adult supervision. The antics before the cameras seemed bent on disruption and venting of anger almost as much as the display of ignorance that seemed to pervade these events. Sure, the Seniors seemed to be angry at a lot of things in addition to health care.  They also seemed to be spurred on by irresponsible seniors-caring tactics by those commentators that have no ethical compunction against the intentional “misreading” of the text of the proposed house and inflammatory media ads by radical fringe groups 60plus.org.  to further political ends.

Witness the back peddling of Sen. Grassley this weekend when confronted on Meet the Press with the lack of any anti-senior animus in the advance directive portions of the bill which merely provides compensation for physicians participating in an elective discussion concerning end of life issues that all of us should reasonably undertake. You can also find on the internet last week’s three part, John Stewart interview of Betsy McCaughey, the Clinton Plan health care reform opponent, who congered up the concept, if not the tag for ”Senior Death Panels” in the Bloomberg Press.  Her insistence that up is actually down and black is actually white, makes sense only in twisted caverns of a disturbed or reckless mind.

Yes, there are certainly issues concerning the cost of end of life care, but the real tragedy is that without advance directives, enormous amounts of useless and ineffective treatment are provided to dying patients,  many of whom would not choose to have it if they were in a condition to make their wishes known. Leaving it to health care professionals and hospitals who can bill the government for it or to grief stricken relatives is neither wise nor responsible. We need to hear the voices of responsible seniors- the grown ups.

The reality is that  our present course is unsustainable and we are on the edge of a major generational confrontation that requires serious and rational thought and consideration. In 2004, Lawrence J. Kotlikoff and Scott Burns published a book entitled The Coming Generational Storm: What you Need to Know about America’s Economic Future published by the MIT Press. It was listed as one of Barron’s 25 Best Books of 2004 and a Forbes..com Top Ten Business Book for 2004.  It was also featured on NPR’s NOW With Bill Moyers.

The authors’ concluding advice seems sentient and appropriate.

And make no mistake. This is not just a moral crisis of the first order. This is the moral crisis of our age. We are collectively endangering our children’s economic futures without giving them the slightest say in the matter. We are doing this systematically and with malice aforethought. Worst of all, we are pretending not to notice.

Whether or not we can handle that trust, we must now face it. Our country has spent decades piling up astronomical bills for the next generation to pay. Forcing them to do so will destroy their lives and ruin our country. The only solution is to radically, but rationally, reform our social insurance institutions and take other critical steps to prevent our nation’s bankruptcy.

Please check your firearms at the door.