Family told by NHS: Alzheimer's is not a 'health condition'

Telegraph.co.uk ^ | August 18,, 2009 | Nick Britten

[allmendream]

I would say irreversible degeneration of cognitive function is a HEALTH not a social problem.

[mewzilla]

From last year...

Baroness Warnock: Dementia sufferers may have a 'duty to die'

A preview of coming attractions...

Paging the folks who are still with AARP: Can't say you weren't warned.

[mewzilla]

Meanwhile...

NICE examines stroke, dementia and VTE

From the link....

Alongside stroke, dementia and VTE, quality standards will also be initially developed for neonatal care. The first quality standards are expected to be available early next year, NICE said.

Which puts me in mind of this article...

Doctors call premature babies ‘bed blockers’

[mewzilla]

All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated...As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon, calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come: so this bell calls us all: but how much more me, who am brought so near the door by this sickness....No man is an island, entire of itself...any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

John Donne

[Tax-chick]

She was forced to sell her £200,000 home to pay her £600-a-week nursing home fees

If she's in a nursing home, what does she need the house for, whatever its price?

[freedumb2003]

I would say irreversible degeneration of cognitive function is a HEALTH not a social problem.

And losing a limb is an "inconvenience."

Socialized Health Care (obamacare) headed your way my friends.

[mewzilla]

She might have wanted to hang on to it because the NHS doesn’t cover all of the costs associated with Alzheimers care. And/or maybe her kids/grandkids wanted her to leave the house to them. Maybe that’s what she wanted also.

[Tax-chick]

It appears the NHS isn’t covering any of the costs associated with Alzheimer’s Care.

[Dudoight]

“I would say irreversible degeneration of cognitive function is a HEALTH not a social problem.”

It certainly is a health problem. It is an organic process, which does not have its origins in behavior but the body’s malfunctioning cells.

[mewzilla]

They're covering some, but the problem is there isn't enough money, hence the rationing. And FWIW, I have no problem with regs that require folks to pay for their own care if they have the assets to do it.

Here's Heritage on the same story...

How’s That Government-run Health Care Working Out Britain?

[allmendream]

Indeed. It is not like smoking related lung cancer or an alcoholic with liver failure. Someone with Alzheimer's did nothing to bring about their condition; which is, as you point out, a biological process not a societal behavior.

[PeterPrinciple]

She was forced to sell her £200,000 home to pay her £600-a-week nursing home fees, which would have been funded if she had been categorised correctly.

---

Does anyone see a problem with this? I don’t. She has assets that should provide for her care.

[bandleader]

While I must agree,El Rushbo summed up the most insidious aspect of how each of us would be regarded(by the government)under single-payer,government run healthcare.We would each become a”budget item”!

[mewzilla]

Meanwhile...

Healthcare trusts 'not paying for Nice approved drugs'

Four in 10 local healthcare trusts are not funding medications which have been approved by the Government’s drugs rationing body, a new survey shows.

What a charlie foxtrot...

[allmendream]

And yet unlike other “budget items” with a built in constituency and the prospect of growing every year out into eternity; your health care will be a “budget item” with a constituency of one that they will be eager to cut.

[LoneRangerMassachusetts]

"She was forced to sell her £200,000 home to pay her £600-a-week nursing home fees"

If she's in a nursing home, what does she need the house for, whatever its price?

The kids want the house, but the state to pay for her care. They couldn't be bothered to care for her. Before Social Security, caring families took in their parents in their later years. They did the caring. They got the estate which they deserved. Now with socialism, the elderly are a burden. Socialism amounts to breaking the bonds of love.

[verity]

Excellent observation.

[Tax-chick]

It just struck me as a funny sentence: they’d originally specified that she was incompetent to live alone, but implied that the sale of her house was a hardship to a nursing home occupant.

I think people should pay for their own medical care, or their own insurance to cover it, too.

[Tax-chick]

The kids want the house, but the state to pay for her care.

That was my interpretation, too. Not a very charitable judgment of the motives, of course ...