Hearings or Hallways?

Larry Minnix testifies before Ways and Means Committee

The House Ways and Means Committee met for nearly 11 hours yesterday to talk about health care reform. Unfortunately, merely a few minutes were spent talking about long-term services and supports.  AAHSA CEO Larry Minnix testified about the issue and urged the committee members not to ignore this vital part of  our health care system.

“While the health reform discussions have focused on the acute care system, we note that the principles that underlie this draft bill resonate in the long-term services and supports field and mirror AAHSA’s public policy and the policy adopted by well over 100 organizations representing aging services and other providers, consumer groups and persons with disabilities,”  said Minnix. “The care and services our members provide are an integral part of the health care system.”

Larry continued, “An estimated 10 million Americans currently need long-term services – personal care, assistive technology and other supportive services, and this number will grow. However, we lack a coordinated, national public-private system for adequately, efficiently and humanely delivering high quality services.”

Their silence to his statement, however, said more than the questions and quarrels I heard about other topics.

But the real irony of the day was in a conversation I overheard while standing outside the meeting room. Two men, probably in the early fifties, were taking the opportunity to catch up during a brief break.

I heard one of the men start talking about  his 80-year-old father. He was explaining his dad’s recent hip replacement and sighed as he described his physical, and possibly mental, decline from the vibrant man he once knew. “I’m just glad he made it this long without too many problems,” he lamented.

I can’t help but wonder if things may have been a bit different if that hallway conversation had been taken into the hearing room.  If the members considered their own parents, friends or loved ones, they might have spent more time on it.

So, that’s my charge to you, readers. Contact your legislator and tell them about your dad or grandmother. Tell them why they can’t be ignored and why it’s time to make it affordable to care.