Candidates' Views On Health Care

According to the St. Louis Post Dispatch, here are the views of the presidential candidates on health care:

Democrats:

Hillary Clinton: Require large employers to provide insurance to their workers or to contribute to cost of coverage; require all Americans to buy health insurance; provide tax credits for families and small businesses to help cover the cost of insurance; expand Medicaid and SCHIP programs; bar insurance companies from denying insurance based on a pre-existing condition, age, or other factors.

John Edwards: Require businesses to cover their employees or help pay for coverage; offer tax credits to families to cover cost; expand Medicaid and SCHIP; bar insurers from discriminating based on pre-existing conditions; once those steps are achieved, require all Americans to buy insurance.

Mike Gravel: Create a universal government-run health care system that provides vouchers to patients for use with their preferred provider, paid for by a retail sales tax.

Dennis Kucinich: Achieve universal health care through a "Medicare for All" program, a single-payer, not-for-profit government system.

Barack Obama: Require all employers to contribute toward health coverage for their workers or toward the cost of a public plan; mandate that all children have health insurance; expand eligibility for Medicaid and SCHIP; create a public insurance program for those who don't qualify for SCHIP or Medicaid.

Bill Richardson: Phased-in requirement for all Americans to have health insurance. Expand SCHIP and Medicaid and allow Americans to buy the same insurance offered to members of Congress; offer sliding-scale tax credit for those who can't afford insurance; require employers to contribute to a health care coverage; provide relief from high interest rates for medical debts on credit cards.

Republicans:

Rudy Giuliani: Offer tax deductions of up to $15,000 to make insurance more affordable; give tax credits to low-income individuals and families; tort reform for medical lawsuits; provide block grants to states that encourage innovation, reduce health costs, and make other improvements.

Mike Huckabee: Make health insurance tax deductible for individuals and families; give tax credits to low-income families; tort reform; expand health savings accounts.

Duncan Hunter: Allow individuals to buy insurance outside their own state, avoiding some state consumer protection laws; require health care providers to put their fee schedules online or make them more available to consumers; create a pilot program featuring four deregulated hospitals to spur innovation and cost savings.

Alan Keyes: Expand health savings accounts; allow importation of prescription drugs from Canada and other countries where they are cheaper; focus more on prevention.

John McCain: Provide a $2,500 tax credit for individuals and $5,000 for families to pay for insurance. Allow people to purchase insurance across state lines and to make insurance more portable between jobs; allow individuals to purchase insurance through trade associations, churches, or other organizations.

Ron Paul: Make all medical expenses tax-deductible; eliminate any federal regulations that discourage small businesses from offering health insurance; expand health savings accounts; give doctors the right to collectively negotiate with insurance companies; allow nurses and pharmacists to provide more health services.

Mitt Romney: Encourage states to reduce insurance regulations; make all medical expenses tax-deductible; push for tort reform; give states flexibility to spend Medicaid funds in whatever way they want.

Fred Thompson: Encourage increased competition with "free-market" solutions and reduced regulation; modernize system with new technology and other innovations.

Beatle Paul Has Heart Surgery

Nothing makes you feel your age like one of the boomer icons having heart disease. Beatle Paul McCartney had a coronary angioplasty, a procedure which opens up the arteries to allow greater blood-flow, last fall.


Paul, now 65 years old, kept the surgery secret. I wonder if that had something to do with his divorce from Heather?


Actually, George Harrison was my favorite Beatle.


What is Ringo doing these days?

The Prayer Chest, A Novel

(Happy New Year from As The Boomers Age. This post was written by my sister Alice)

I recently The Prayer Chest by August Gold and Joel Fotinos, as recommended by our church pastor. It is billed as "a novel about receiving all of life's riches" and it is a quick read, in fact, I found it hard to put down. It is an enjoyable story, but also makes us delve more deeply into our beliefs about luck, fate and chance and do we really have a say in our destiny. As baby boomers we have lived to see much change in the world and in our own lives due to modern technology, but we also see the world differently than our parents and grandparents, once did, many of whom were immigrants.

My parents believed in "you get nothing for nothing", work hard as "money does not grow on trees", "there is no such thing as luck"....and my sister and I carried those images into adulthood....often afraid to question when something good happened.....was it luck or are we entitled to all of life's riches as long as we believe it is possible, as long as we are open to what is possible, as long as we welcome everything that happens as necessary for us to get to the next chapter in our lives......we will live much longer than our parents and I believe we can live more authentically and find meaning in our lives.

If you get a chance, read this book.....the book jacket describes it as "a parable for people of all faiths -- or none--it is to be read, enjoyed and above all, lived".........If you enjoy it, tell others about it, just as I did.

Friendship and the Boomers

(Happy Holidays from As The Boomers Age. Here is another post written by my sister Alice)

I am lucky enough be friends with people I have known for over twenty years. We met in 1986 when our children were in school together and attended all those events, like bake sales, basketball games, Valentine's Day parties, sleep overs, and church fund raisers. We were fortunate enough to enjoy ourselves not only as women friends tending to these activities, but our husbands got along famously and it was not unusual for all of us to help each other on the weekends with home repairs, to plan parties together and even to vacation one weekend a year without our children.

When at each other's homes for holidays like the 4th of July or Memorial Day, our children spent the time together as well. We saw each other through parents' illnesses, deaths, divorces, weddings and births of grandchildren. We were inseparable. We called ourselves "The Cemetery Club" after a movie made years ago.

Then I moved to California for four years and what a change occurred when I returned. We are no longer carefree baby boomers with nothing but time on our hands for parties.......we are taking in children who have divorced, we are watching grandchildren so our children can work, we are caring for aging and ill parents, or visiting them in hospitals or homes, we have had our own illnesses and surgeries, and we are still working ourselves due to the high cost of living.............the holidays come and go, but instead of us getting together, we are often all traveling to other cities and states to see grandchildren or hosting birthday parties, baptisms, wedding and baby showers.....and these parties are filled with people of all ages, not just four couples who used to celebrate holidays leisurely, quietly and laughing over past memories.

The times we get together now are very special for they are less often and we must make the most of our friendships.

We Boomers As Grandparents

(I am unable to tend to this blog now, so I have found another aging baby boomer to write some posts--my sister, Alice. )

I can only speak for myself when I say what a proud boomer grandparent I am. My husband and I absolutely adore being grandparents and expect to be "taken advantage of" (by being asked to baby-sit our precocious, beautiful, three-and-a-half year old granddaughter) as often as possible.

Being a grandparent (I was a parent in the early1970's) is so much different than being a mother 34 years ago. The world is much smaller somehow and these children see and do so much more than our children did. They are extremely bright due to television, computers, and being enrolled in school long before they are Kindergarten age.

In most cases, both parents work and often these children are being watched all day by us baby boomer grandparents. I recently asked a friend's husband, whose wife watches their two grandchildren daily, if it is different caring for a grandchild as opposed to a child....he said, "no, we are as careful and diligent as we were with our sons." I believe I am more careful and watchful when Courtney is with us, she is left in our care and we are responsible for her safety.

I fell with her two years ago and although I tore my rotator cuff, my hysteria was over the fact she was in my arms and I was nearly inconsolable until I knew she was alright. But on the whole.... I, personally, find I have more patience, more time for hugs, I play with her more, we stop to smell the flowers and we step in rain puddles.....I overlook the spills and breakage because when she looks at me and says, "I love you, Nana", my heart melts. How blessed we are to be young enough to enjoy these "treasures".

Boomer And Proud Of It!

From Boomeronboard.net:

"Boomers - it's time to stop hiding. Time to stop the denial. We can face the truth.

• No longer will we let our children shame us into denying our demographic heritage!


• No longer will we live the Grecian Formula lifestyle!


• No longer will we keep our Fleetwood Mac albums in the attic!


• Now is the time to let your Boomer flag fly, and fly proudly.


• There's no reason to be ashamed of your birth year! You are not alone. Hoo boy, not even close.


• There are about 75 million of us Boom People between the ages of 40 and 60 in the US right this very minute.


• And that doesn't even count the ones getting botox in Mexico.


• With advances in cloning, there are more of us each and every day. Now is the time to take back the early evening and reclaim our dignity.


• And what better way to do it than with a Boomer on Board™ car window decal? "

These decals are available for $4.50 each (plus shipping and handling) at the above mentioned web site. Even if you don't buy one, the site itself is a funny read. The decals are applied with static, so they are not permanent.

Nevertheless, I think I'll pass on purchasing one. I feel there may be a growing backlash against us because of the Social Security issue. I wouldn't want my car vandalized because I am a Boomer.

The Boomer Way of Death

From Entrepreneur.com:

"The funeral industry may not be in its prime, but personalized funerals will be alive and kicking in 2007. Baby boomers who demand that things be done “their way,” coupled with innovative entrepreneurs and a trend toward cremations, are shaking life into this lifeless industry. So bid farewell to the traditional church funeral and say hello to memorial services held on golf courses, ashes scattered while skydiving and cremains launched into outer space by rockets.

According to Lisa Takeuchi Cullen, author of Remember Me: A Lively Tour of the New American Way of Death, 'There will be a whole different array of services and merchandise to accommodate people who only want cremation, who don’t want to pay $3,000 for the ornate traditional casket, who don’t need embalming, who don’t need that open-casket wake at the funeral home.' ”

So we boomers shall have it our way, even in death. Just as I am ignoring my lack of retirement funds, I am ignoring arrangements for my ultimate demise. I favor cremation, so an expensive casket is impractical. Planning a special memorial service for myself as well as a choosing a location to scatter my ashes sounds like fun. May be this "final arrangement" business isn't so bad after all.