Washington Monthly | The Strange Political Silence On Elder Care

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Washington Monthly | The Strange Political Silence On Elder Care

Most people assume that Medicare will cover the type of long-term personal care older people often need; it does not. Neither does standard private health insurance. And the average Social Security check can only make a medium-sized dent in the cost of this care, which can easily exceed $100,000 a year if provided in a nursing home. Medicaid, unlike Medicare, does cover long-term care, but only for patients who have exhausted their savings, and coverage, which varies from state to state, can be extremely limited. So the safety net you thought would catch you in old age is less like a net and more like a staircase you get pushed down, bumping along until you’ve impoverished yourself enough to hit Medicaid at the bottom.

The safety net you thought would catch you in old age is less like a net and more like a staircase you get pushed down, bumping along until you’ve impoverished yourself enough to hit Medicaid at the bottom. Private long-term care insurance exists, but it’s the designer bikini of insurance: too expensive, skimpy coverage. Since people tend to buy it only when they know they’ll soon be making a claim, there are never enough healthy people paying into the plans to keep them affordable. Insurance companies have realized this and jacked up premiums—or stopped selling policies altogether. Meanwhile, the cost of hiring a home health aide to take care of a frail parent can add up to $50,000 or more per year. So tens of millions of individual women across the United States wind up providing the care themselves for free, and bearing its cost in the form of stress, lost wages, and lost opportunities to nourish their other needs, and their families’. When we talked on the phone, Baden-Mayer wondered aloud, “Why is it that we don’t have a good system that we can plug into when our parents need care?”

More Research Needed : Shots – Health News : NPR

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Cancer And The Environment: More Research Needed : Shots – Health News : NPR

Perhaps no question about cancer is more contentious than its causes. People wonder, and scientists debate, if most malignancies stem from random DNA mutations and other chance events or from exposure to carcinogens, or from behaviors that might be avoided. At the conference in Charlotte, N.C., scientists pressed for a reassessment of the role of environmental exposures by applying modern molecular techniques to toxicology. They called for more aggressive collection of examples of human pathology and environmental samples, including water and air, so that cellular responses to chemicals can be elucidated.

Cannabis spotted at Statehouse

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Cannabis spotted at Statehouse

MONTPELIER, Vt. — Cannabis plants were found in Statehouse flower beds earlier this week. 

he Chief of Capitol Police, Matthew Romei, says the plants were discovered on Monday where a visitor noticed the plants in the flower beds. Romei suspects the plants are either hemp or marijuana. He has no plans to do any further testing. He says around 33 immature plants were discovered, and if more are found they will be removed. Romei says he does not know who is responsible and does not plan to exhaust any resources to take legal action.

Agriculture is big business in Vermont. A growing business, one where they are expanding into new crops, everywhere.

July 12, 2019 Morning

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Good morning folks! Y’all know what day today is. Next Friday is when I leave for Summer vacation after work, assuming the weather is decent and I’m ready to go. 🏊🏿. Eight nights in the woods, where I make my own rules, have fires and relax. I’d say it’s cloudy, humid and 71 degrees in Delmar, NY. ☁ Going to warmer as the day progresses. There is a west breeze at 5 mph 🍃. The dew point is 68 degrees. Perfect weather for the muggers. The skies will clear around 11 am.

Walked down to the express bus 🚍 and the air conditioning sure feels nice. ❄ Not warm enough to turn the fan on in my bedroom but definitely feels a tad bit muggy. 🚦 Hitting all the traffic lights heading downtown today. Traffic also was a bit backed up going through the Empire Plaza, but I’m not in that much of a rush to get to work.

I had lots of black percolator coffee this morning, ☕ cold because it’s been so warm. It was very strong, and it woke me up right away. I also made waffles up. Of course all that coffee cleared me out well, 🚽 which is probably good for gut health or something like that. I heard that they have fresh local sweet corn, 🌽 and despite the advice from the Internet Gut Doctor™ always advertising, I am looking forward to having some this weekend.

Today will be partly sunny 🌞, with a high of 82 degrees at 3pm. Typical for today. Figures. Maximum dew point of 68 at 9am. Slight drop in the humidity as the day progresses, but still pretty warm come the afternoon.West wind 5 to 15 mph. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. The high last year was 85 degrees. The record high of 96 was set in 1935.

The sun will set at 8:33 pm with dusk around 9:06 pm, which is 32 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 At sunset, look for mostly clear skies 🌄 and temperatures around 75 degrees. The dew point will be 64 degrees. There will be a west-northwest breeze at 10 mph. Today will have 15 hours and 3 minutes of daytime, an increase of one minute and 19 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be mostly clear 🌃, with a low of 63 degrees at 4am. One degree above normal. Maximum dew point of 65 at 6pm. Northwest wind 5 to 10 mph. In 2018, we had partly cloudy skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 61 degrees. The record low of 45 occurred back in 1939.

Tomorrow will be sunny 🌞, with a high of 88 degrees at 3pm. Five degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 64 at 6pm. West wind around 7 mph. Hot and humid, should be nice out in old Schoharie County. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. The high last year was 88 degrees. The record high of 96 was set in 1894.

The plan is to get a fairly early start tomorrow, head out on NY 990V through the Northern Catskills, pack a lunch, 🛣 hike around Mine Kill Falls, then go for a swim for the bulk of the day at Mine Kill Park. Camp overnight somewhere at Burnt-Rossman, then do some fishing and hiking on Sunday, which should be nicer of the two days, at least weather wise. Should be downright pleasant by afternoon, maybe a bit chilly with the breeze and the rapidly dropping humidity. I heard sweet corn is now being sold locally, so I may be buy some and have it with burgers 🍔 up at camp.

Looking ahead to Sunday, mostly sunny 😎, with a high near 82. West wind 7 to 15 mph. Maximum dew point of 62 at 6am. Less humid by mid afternoon. Typical average high for the weekend is 83 degrees. Going to be a real nice day, but as I was noting earlier, in the somewhat cooler weather of the Northern Catskills with that breeze, it might be cool swimming.

Tonight I’ll install the replacement burner in the camp stove. 🔥 I expect it will work well. For my vacation I’m going to pick up an inexpensive table cloth probably at the dollar store so I don’t have to look at the scratched and patched up camp table and it looks cleaner. I figure it the cheap table cloth doesn’t last it can be burnt and I can get another.

Vacation will be upon my before I know it, ⛺ so I should continue to get ready. That said I don’t expect that I have to do a lot, but if I want to get that camping permit, today is the day to do it. I should see if I can just find the old permit from seven years ago, and have the PA DCNR update it. 🗒 If not, I might just camp more in New York or Allegheny National Forest but I’d like to spend some time in Pennsyltucky.

On this day in 1967, the Newark Riots begin with over six days of rioting, looting, and destruction leaving 26 dead. 😡 Fortunately we aren’t worrying about that anymore, everybody’s just talking about immigration. I guess I should be more concerned, but that doesn’t really apply that much to me.

As previously noted, next Friday is Summer Vacation 🏊🏿 when the sun will be setting at 8:28 pm with dusk at 9:01 pm. On that day in 2018, we had sunny skies, patches of fog and temperatures between 83 and 55 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 83 degrees. We hit a record high of 97 back in 1904.

Feet Up

Landscape with Beavers

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Landscape with Beavers

In the American West, beavers are gaining a reputation as environmental engineers who can help restore water systems — and challenge their human neighbors to think differently about land use.