I believe there is a unique bond between grandparents and grandchildren. We look out for each other. We have each other’s backs.
A sharply divided U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the centerpiece of President Barack Obama\’s signature healthcare overhaul law that requires that most Americans get insurance by 2014 or pay a financial penalty.
Whether or not we are believers in the Obama plan, or any of the particular plans for universal health care currently winding their way through Congress, support for universal health care is an imperative in Jewish law. Although what is available in medicine and its cost have changed radically, particularly over the past century, the fundamental right to receive good care — and to be compensated for giving it — goes very far back in our heritage, though perhaps, ironically, not all the way to the Torah or even the Mishnah.
Susie Tiffany of Beverly Hills suffers from a rare blood disorder and needs monthly infusions of blood components, which her insurance company ultimately declined to cover. She hoped the government\’s new prescription drug benefit would help her out because, despite her ZIP code, she\’s a low-income senior. But the possibilities, were baffling: an array of private insurance plans that covered different things, explanations on the Internet that included terms she never had to know before, additional complexities depending on a person\’s income and a confusing interplay of state and federal agencies. However, Tiffany was able to find assistance in her case from Jewish Family Service. A social worker helped get Tiffany\’s treatment covered by new state funds intended to help seniors with the transition to the new federal system.
Israel and the United States each have successes and failures in their respective health care systems, but the younger of the modern nations, rooted in its tradition of helping the needy, has much to teach its American ally.
In this presidential campaign year, the figure is ubiquitous: One out of four Americans, about 70 million people, do not have health insurance.
Because elder care can be an enormous drain on an individual\’s resources, with nursing homes costing in excess of $100 a day and home care costing even more, planning ahead and buying long-term-care insurance is one way of preventing the costs from being too overwhelming.
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