Healthcare for Seniors in Our Country CD1 Forum

I attended a Congressional District 1 Forum today where the topic was healthcare for seniors. I must disclose that I worked in a high quality nursing home for ten years before I became a teacher and an accountant. One of my first loves was geriatric health care. I actually took blood pressure readings for members of the Senior Center 20 years ago in the same place where the forum was being held today.

I strongly believe that people should be treated with dignity and respect in their latter years of life. People can have that dignity while still being taking care of in a safe and respectful way. I don’t think that home care is the complete answer to geriatric health care because of the limited number of nurses and doctors in this country. I also hate the idea of large scale nursing homes where the potential for abuse is a lot more likely. People in the general public have to understand that everyday in this country 99% of health care workers pour out their hearts to give quality care to the elderly but it only takes one nursing home like Fort Bayard to give a black eye to the entire profession of geriatric health care.

Robert Pidcock pointed out that Michelle Lujan Grisham was head of the New Mexico Dept of Health during the period that Fort Bayard was brought to the attention of the public. Michelle gave credit to Union Health care workers for reporting the abuse to her office. She told the forum that she had spent six months trying to make Fort Bayard a better place for patients. She went as far as to run the place personally in an attempt to improve care. She blamed the management of Fort Bayard for the failure of proper care for patients.

The only three candidates to show for the forum were Robert Pidcock, Michelle Lujan Grisham and Joe Carraro. They all answers questions on how senior health care should be handled in the future. Michelle Lujan Grisham had the corner on that issue because she has so much experience in the area. I still can not agree with her that all nursing homes should be done away with because it would just be far too difficult and expensive to provide individual heath care workers for everyone that now resides in a long term nursing home. I do agree that more people could be living out in the community and that group homes are part of the answer but not the whole answer for this issue.

Robert Pidcock did a much better job of speaking in this forum. He spent 99% of his time looking at the people he was speaking to this time. He and I spoke after the forum about his stand on PAC money. He does have a point that candidates like Senator Obama have been able to raise money without resorting to PACs but I just don’t see how local candidates can achieve that without financial reform of campaign finance. Mr. Pidcock could be a very good addition to our local government but I still think that he needs more experience in local elections before he tries a run for congress. He has a point that if all of the candidates refused to take PAC money that they would all be better off for it but if only one breaks with the group then everyone else is put at a disadvantage financially. I don’t see candidates like Darren White refusing PAC money anytime in the future. A candidate must be careful were his or her PAC money comes from and what is expected from them in return. Martin Heinrich and Michelle Lujan Grisham both have a point when they say that blue collar workers have a better change of get candidate’s support on their issues if they can band together in a PAC. Large corporations on the other hand should be prevented from creating PACs because they can pay for lobbyist to help make their case to elected officials.

Joe Carraro was the only republican to show for the forum so I guess he is the only one that wants votes from the republican senior voters in the northeast heights. After 20 years in the state senate he has learned to take a more middle of the road stand on issues like health care but his stand is still one that has not worked for our country during the past eight years. Market medical care has only caused double digit inflation in the past and can not be the answer in the future for our country if we want seniors on fixed incomes to be able to afford healthcare and medications. It comes down to a matter of the quality of live we want for our parents and our grandparents.