The Snowball Effect

According to AI, this is the definition of the snowball effect:

The snowball effect is a process where a small initial action, event, or problem grows in size, significance, or intensity at an accelerating rate, much like a small snowball gathering more snow as it rolls downhill.

For some time now it has dawned on me that the snowball effect in relationship to elderly people is going to cripple this country.

I got hit in the face with another snowball yesterday. Here’s what happened.

Four years ago I retired. Like anyone who retires, we apply for social security, Medicare, and Medicare Part B.

So I chose to go with Humana for my Part B. My husband retired about 8 years before I did, chose Humana, and had been satisfied with it. I simply jumped on that bandwagon per his suggestion.

One of the perks of choosing Humana was a seventy-five dollar quarterly spending allowance for supplements and over-the-counter items. Anything from bandages, personal items, toothpaste, etc.

You simply go on their app and choose what you want, at the beginning of every quarter, and they ship it to you. It’s a nice little cost savings for frequently used items.

Remember, this was exactly four years ago this month that I jumped on that bandwagon.

Since then, that seventy-five dollar quarterly spending allowance went down to sixty dollars, then fifty dollars, then forty five dollars, and yesterday it dropped to thirty-three dollars.

Being that yesterday was the first day of the new quarter, I went on the app to ‘purchase’ a few items and noticed it dropped to thirty-three dollars per quarter.

That’s just one of many things that affect senior citizens.

Many members of the medical community are searching for the fountain of youth so that we can slow down aging and live longer.

So where is all of the extra money for social security payments, disability payments, etc., supposed to come from to support an increasing elderly population in addition to all the new retirees?

Then, let’s talk about staffing. Let’s face it, very few people want to work in nursing homes, assisted living facilities, memory care facilities, etc. So that means that while more of these facilities are being built to handle the elderly population that continues to grow, the more difficult it’s going to be to staff them.

Almost fifty years ago my grandparents were put in a nursing home because my grandma had Alzheimer’s and my grandpa was limited due to a stroke. For a little background on them, they never owned a home. They did own a tavern with living quarters in the back. After they sold that, they moved to an apartment, on a bus line because they never owned a car. Being that they lived during the depression means they knew how to get blood out of a nickel.

Their children, my mom and my aunt, had no idea how much money their parents had until they went into a nursing home and had to disclose their assets. $265,000 (the equivalent of almost one million dollars today) went to the nursing home until they passed. There was nothing left.

Some cultures believe in taking care of their own. Great in theory until the cared for can’t be left alone which could mean the end of date night for you and your spouse, the end of weekend get-aways, the end of family vacations, or attending their children’s activities for the evening. There are sacrifices to be made all the way around.

I’m not trying to make this sound like the elderly people should be disposed of after a certain age, but, the folks that had a decent retirement are having their funds eaten up by rising costs everywhere across the board. Which means if they end up in an assisted living facility, when their money runs out, some government agency is going to have to come up with funds for their living expenses and health costs.

My mom is currently in assisted living but because she can feed, dress, shower, and toilet herself, she’s at a Level 1 care (the least expensive) and that’s running $5,000 per month. She is private pay due to an inheritance she received but in two years she will be out of money, will need to go on Title 19, and move to a studio room from the one-bedroom unit she currently has. She will be ninety-six next month.

It’s simply snowballing with no end in sight and honestly, I have no suggestions on how to solve this. Jobs in the medical field are growing by leaps and bounds…faster than nurses and doctors are available.

My husband had a procedure done at a nearby hospital about two months ago and the nurse who was taking care of him told me she’s a traveling nurse. She said she makes great money and travels to wherever she’s needed due to a nursing shortage. There’s another expense…covering her growing salary and travel expenses. And we’re all paying for that.

In the meantime the senior citizens of today will continue to exercise, take more supplements, eat healthier, and enjoy their lives until they no longer can.

I won’t lie…this situation scares me to death.