Jane Eidler used to be known as the “Blatchley Pool Lady.”
For 38 years, she taught swimming and managed the pool at Sitka’s Blatchley Middle School. She led walking tours of the town where she married and raised three children.
Then came Alzheimer’s, and the woman who had guided others across Sitka’s trails and waters suddenly needed guidance herself.
Sitka, a town of 8,600 people on Baranof Island, doesn’t have many private options for that guidance. There are only two private assisted-living facilities in the city, with three beds between them. Most Sitka seniors use the state-owned Pioneer Home, the oldest of six Alaska facilities built and operated by the state to care for its elderly residents.
In October, Eidler entered the Pioneer Home, and her family began paying $6,800 per month for care. Eidler had bought long-term care insurance long ago, and that took care of about $4,000 per month. The remaining balance, while steep, was manageable for a middle-class couple that had saved for retirement.
On Sept. 1, the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services sharply raised the cost to stay at one of the state-owned Pioneer Homes.
“Her monthly bill went from $6,800 to $13,300,” said Lauren Wild, Eidler’s daughter.
For months, the state has said it will extend an existing payment assistance plan and that no current resident will be evicted for lack of ability to pay.
Read the rest here: https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/2019/09/17/pioneer-home-residents-and-families-struggle-with-heartbreaking-decisions-after-rate-increase/
Then came Alzheimer’s, and the woman who had guided others across Sitka’s trails and waters suddenly needed guidance herself.
YOU KNOW, IT IS A CRYING ASS SHAME THAT BY NOW, THIS DISEASE HASNT BEEN ERADICATED…………
NO WAIT!!!
THAT WOULD CUT INTO THE TEN BILLION WE SENT ISRAHELL THIS MORNING!!!
IM SORRY, I SHOULD HAVE KEPT QUIET…(looking at the ground, kicking rocks)
better not end up depending on government.
This both angers me and disgusts me. Should not any sane society compassionately take care of its elderly and not take from them everything they’ve taken a lifetime to earn? Always seemed to me that after age seventy it should be clear sailing, but no, we are penalized ’till the very end. This has to change. The societies of old honored their elders. In my own home, grandma was treated like a queen. They’ve gotten us so used to nursing homes that we’ve forgotten how to take care of our own, and they keep us going so fast and working so much that we sometimes find the nursing home as the only choice for a loved one. I hope this can turn around. Someone once told me, she had to put her mom in a home because she could not lift her. Valid point, but for me it lives side-by-side with a memory of two or three family members lifting granny and getting the job done. Granted, we sometimes had to call a cousin or uncle from across the street to come help with the lifting. And that was another thing that felt sane: cousins and aunts and uncles near by, even on the same block. Now we are all so spread apart. If only nursing homes could exist for emergencies only. If only.
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Beautifully stated, galen. I despise the “find a place for Mom” radio commercial!
Thanks, Katie.
Sometimes I just wonder how we keep going. Life today requires an inordinate amount of emotional strength.
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Rate increase, what’s that? I think we drew a pretty clear picture HOW THIS SHIT HAPPENS. Jews and Banks, put those two multipliers together and you have RATE INCREASES!
Just like bees and honey, just works out that way..more bullshit, same day..
Rate increase, what’s that? I think we drew a pretty clear picture HOW THIS SHIT HAPPENS. Jews and Banks, put those two multipliers together and you have RATE INCREASES@
I’m only commenting once, these goddamn double replies is bullshit.