This is a good article. The truth is probably even worse than the article tells.
Once they have their hooks in you, its tough to get loose.
This rings close to home. My mom died last week. If a nursing home could have helped her, she would have wanted it. But there was no magic pill there and she wanted to stay in her home. Medicare approved 25 hours of home health care which was really helpful. But after 2 weeks, she needed hospice and the 25 hours were no longer approved. Didn’t make sense, but she died 2 days into hospice so that battle was over. Yes, people are living longer, but it seems we can prolong the end of life which is often painful, expensive and heartbreaking. She may have lived a little longer in a home, gasping for every breath. I have no answers, just a broken heart
Something we should be aware of is the “Mexican alternative”, that is for the elderly and infirm patient to be moved to one of the American communities just south of the border.
There are both retirement and nursing homes there, and many are top notch, created and run by Americans, for Americans, but with many advantages:
1) Good security. Only authorized people allowed in.
2) Very good Doctor/Nurse/caregiver to patient ratio. Often an American doctor, English speaking Mexican nurses and assistants.
3) Surgery and US manufactured medicine at half the price or less.
In the retirement area, homes are cleaned, meals are prepared, laundry is done, even landscaping. In the nursing care area the emphasis is on natural end of life without pain.
Hidden benefits are that the person is out of the US legal environment, so is not easy prey for predators. Mexico is actually top-heavy with trained medical personnel who speak English.
Culturally, elderly people in Mexico pass away while still being cared for by their families, so there is a much higher level of respect for the elderly than in the US.