Health

32 HEALTH • Spring 2015 Hear For Your Life We offer comprehensive hearing care services including complete hearing evaluations, hearing loss rehabilitation, education and counseling. • Hearing Aids • Batteries & Accessories • Assistive Listening Devices • Amplified Phones • Hearing Evaluations • Wax Removal • Hearing Protection • Musician's Earplugs • Swim Plugs Holden Hearing Aid Center, Inc. 695 Main Street • Holden, MA 01520 Phone: (508) 829-5566 • Fax: (508) 829-5575 www.HoldenHearingAid.com • DrMoreno@holdenhearingaid.com Matthew Moreno, Au.D. Doctor of Audiology COST OF LIVING: MIDDLE CLASS BEARS THE BURDEN in home care," Fuccione said. But just as in the world of nursing homes and assisted living facilities, health insurers don't tend to cover home care services for the long haul. Fuccione said Medicare, for instance, typically provides coverage for 60 days after a patient experiences a health event requiring follow-up care, unless the patient has a special chronic health condition or meets income guidelines for subsidy. Fuccione said the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) is beginning to test alternative methods for paying health care providers that could lead to better reimbursement for home care services. "We have agencies that are ready and willing to step into this brave new world of alternative payments, because, especially for home-based care … it can do a lot for patients," Fuccione said. Social factors The obvious financial burden that being sick in your later years can cre- ate is symptomatic of a lack of a safety net for elderly who need long-term care in the U.S., according to Renee Beard, associate professor in the Sociolog y & Anthropolog y Department at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester. "We don't seem to have a political voice that says, 'Why should someone work their whole life and then spend down (savings) in a nursing home?' " Beard said. Like Fins, Beard said it tends to be the middle class that finds itself in this predicament. In the U.S., she said, one must be rich or impoverished to afford these medical services. "So the vast majority of us are stuck in the middle," Beard said. Compounding the problem is the fact that adult children are often straddling the divide between caring for aging parents while raising their children, which Beard attributes to the trend of people having children later in life. Family relationships also have the potential to influence long-term care costs. In general, Beard said, the low- income population and certain ethnic groups are more committed to pro- viding care to aging family members themselves, when possible. "I do think there are groups that show us good models," Beard said. Deborah Merrill, professor of soci- ology at Clark University in Worcester, said there's a notion that American families historically lived together in multigeneration households, but she said that's largely a myth; this gener- ally didn't occur at rates higher than what we see today, except around the time of the Great Depression, she said. But one important social change has been women's increased role the workforce. In past generations, Merrill said it was common for daughters to care for their elderly parents. These days, most daughters work, meaning parents now have to purchase that care. "That's a bigger issue," Merrill said. Merrill, too, said this is a particular problem for the middle class. As a remedy, Merrill said the federal gov- ernment should redirect Medicare dollars toward making home-based care more affordable, rather than high-tech measures to keep people alive as long as physically possible, even when their quality of life is poor. The elderly should discuss their wishes with family and doctors in advance, she said. Otherwise, doctors tend to keep patients alive "because we have the technology to do it," Merrill said. 'I do think there are groups that show us good models.' Renee Beard, College of the Holy Cross professor, saying strong family ties can help ease the way for the aging Continued from Page 15

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