Aging....what a way to go?

"Hi Mom, I love you!" "I'm sorry sir, you have the wrong number!""Mom, don't hang up, this is Kent!" "Oh, okay, I'll let you talk to your dad."
Aging is a flip of the coin in life. Some folks get older with seemingly little physical or mental trials, and others are assaulted by all sorts of "issues" that make the golden years more challenging than we're told they should be. So we struggle to get our elders to eat right and stay safe. It's not that they don't care, but sometimes the challenges of aging can be overwhelming for those living it.
I'm grateful for my Aunt Patti. She took care of grandpa when he reached a point where he shouldn't be driving, and needed a bit more TLC than was normal for him. When I talked to her about our efforts to take care of my husband's parents, she advised that we just let them eat what they want, which is usually fairly healthy, and not try to force things on them, such as more food or liquids than they want. So our goal is to try and make them as comfortable as possible, without making them feel like we are treating them like babies. Tough to do sometimes. It sure gives us cause to be more considerate of our diet, exercise, and spiritual nourishing so that we can be in better shape. Not that it would matter if we have genetic traits such as blindness, arthritis, or loss of hearing. Thankfully, as far as I know, my family is pretty healthy over all, so for me, we shouldn't have to worry, but Kent may inherit, and seems to have already shown signs of hearing loss and such. What advice would you have for taking care of aging parents, and looking into the future for ourselves?

Government Sponsored Health Care

There is a big hoopla going on in the news with government officials, politicians and the public on a government sponsored health care program. I've read that the plan is to tax heavily the rich in this country to help pay for it. Define rich. Is it someone who makes over $100,00 a year, or is the wage scale higher? If so, according to the stats, there are only about 5% of income earners in the US that make over $150,00 a year. So how long will that last before they start lowering the income level to tax at a higher rate?
Now if you take a look at our health care system in general, the biggest problem I see is that we have moved heavily into PPO plans, where you pay a co-pay and the insurance and or doctors eat the rest. The doctors who accept the PPO plans have to write off what the insurance company says isn't allowed. So they get creative in finding ways to get more money, by either raising the rates they charge, or they add on things such as huge consultation fees and follow up appintments that they charge for. You are limited to what doctors you can see by your insurance plan. No I'm not married to a medical doctor even though my husband has a doctoral degree from Berkeley. With the old HMO plans, you had a deductible, and then paid 20% of the doctor visit. If you had a procedure the consult fee was minimal, the procedure covered 90% to %100 by the plan, and you got to choose what doctor you went to. That's so much better in the long run as the market will play out as to who is the best to go to for medical care, not the insurance company.
I could go into a lot more detail but I won't. If you stop and think about it, there are much better ways to change our health care system. Some of that requires that we become educated and wise consumers. There are many times when people really don't need to go to a doctor. This drives the cost up as well. Common sense and OTC meds can most times take care of the sniffles and such. Let's tell our politicians no on government sponsored health care. If you look at the other systems they are already in charge of, and then take a look at the government system already in place you will see that the answer to the government being involved is no!