LONG TERM CARE: A BENEFIT WITH MORE THAN I HAD SUPPOSED

When my wife I arrived at the New Paltz Community Center at 3:05 pm, we were more than surprised at the crowd already there --  we were amazed. The two dozen or so people who had already arrived before us had braved -- as we did -- a torrential downpour of almost freezing rain. and they kept on coming. As we later learned, some had come from as far as two counties away. None of us wanted to miss Henry Moss, Ph.D, talk about the addition to the New York Health Act of Long Term Care, for which he is largely responsible.

Of course I had been in favor of  NYHA's inclusion of Long Term Care; I had generally supposed it would be a good thing, and had thought little more about it. But when Dr. Moss starting speaking about it, I began to realize that I had  no idea about how really crucial it was. The key is two-fold: First, he said, Millennials are having fewer children, so there will be fewer potential caregivers as the older generation starts to need them. And second, he said, when a parent or someone else does need care, the burden of that care is likely to fall upon a woman -- men are less inclined to care giving. It was that which turned on the light bulb in the head of the dimwit who happens to be your humble author, Dio. 

For as Dr. Moss continued to detail how these female caregivers might feel the need to give up full time work -- or even leave the work force entirely --  I remembered the dozens of men who had confessed to me that they were less than passionately in favor of single-payer because their corporate insurance was excellent, thank you very much, and while they were certainly conscious that others might have a problem, and while they were certainly concerned -- in a general sort of way -- they had other imperatives competing for their attention. 

But women on the other hand, feeling more obligated than men to care for loved ones, might be all the more passionately committed to the passage of Single-Payer if they knew it now includes a provision which especially benefits them -- long term care.  Our task is to make it known.

It feels a bit weird to have been reminded of self-interest in a room full of people who have proven they are anything but selfish. But I'm reminded of the way of the world. If you show someone that a policy benefits someone else, you might expect at best, an agreement that it is a good thing. But demonstrate to them that the policy is in their own self interest, and you get their attention.

My wife has just reminded me that there are more families than ever before where the woman is the principal breadwinner, and in single-parent families, that single parent is likely a woman. And in most families, the principal one taking care of the children tends to be the woman, and when she is tasked also with caring for a parent, she feels the strain of being pulled in two directions.

Our job is to get the electorate's attention -- including the women's.   

Dio

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