As breakthroughs in science continue to ever increase the graying of America, we as a country must decide what is the government’s role, family’s role and the individual responsibility of preparing for one’s own care in our golden years.
For those that have the income during their working years and possibly an incentive or benefit from their employer, they may be lucky enough to pay into long-term care insurance. For those that have wealth and assets, they can choose to either pay directly out of pocket for home care or choose a lavish senior community. In some cultures, it is traditional to have a multigenerational home where elders are respected and cared for by family members.
However, there is a large group of the working-class senior population that do not have the disposable income, long-term care insurance, family or government subsidies for care in their later years. The families of elderly and mentally disabled citizens are being left behind in the inner cities across America.
While many believed federal programs such as Medicaid for the poor and Medicare for the elderly would cover most Americans, the inner city is still deprived of health care provider options and populated predominately by poor minorities unable to purchase health care in a competitive market. Some who are employed often hold low-paying, nonunionized jobs that do not provide health insurance, while others had full careers and even earned pensions, but are now in the precarious position of doing just good enough to get by but a little too well for any additional support when a medical issue arises. As a result, many are unable to remain in their homes and are forced to liquidate the few assets they have to qualify for Medicaid and find nursing and convalescent homes as their only alternative for assistance.
Hopefully this group of people will have new options if President Biden’s pledge of $400 billion for home care is passed. He has placed home care as a priority issue for his administration and the funding he has committed will change the focus to most seniors preferred goal of remaining in their homes. This will increase money for Medicare, Medicaid and community care-based organizations, training, additional pay for home caregivers and tax credits for families providing care for a family member.
Home care organizations like Home Guardian Angels (HGA) who are based and mainly serve inner city seniors and the disabled truly support this new vision. Ultimately, the residents of inner cities, their health care providers and their governments must seek to correct the current inequities in the homecare system. Achieving real change will require new ideas for the redirection of resources, coordination and collaboration, and assisting individuals in helping themselves.
The conventional wisdom for most home care agencies has always been to solicit seniors who have private wealth through private pay or long-term care insurance. While a proven strategy, it has less personal meaning for us – the Home Guardian Angels founders. HGA has taken the counterintuitive challenge of mainly serving the black and brown communities of South-Central Los Angeles. With a new plan of reorientation of funds and thinking, we truly believe we can be successful in assuring the health of these communities in the truest sense.
From creating new health care financing options, attracting more home health providers to the inner city and developing new delivery systems responsive to the needs of inner-city residents, HGA still believes the best way to improve the health of this community is to provide more access to jobs and training, increase incomes, and improve the socioeconomic status of the residents that live there.
We pride ourselves in improving the health of our inner cities by assuring our clients that there is a quality health care provider available in the community. By focusing attention on dismantling the race discrimination that permeates home health care and on developing new health care delivery systems that meet the needs of poor, inner-city, minority patients, we are committed to having a positive impact within the communities we serve.
Karim Zaman and Marc Adderly (executive director) are co-founders of Home Guardian Angels Inc. Learn more at homeguardianangels.com.
