If you can recall the famous phrase during the 1960's Peace and Love generation "Never trust anyone over thirty," or were too stoned to remember, then health care reform is your new cause; and not to be fought with peace, but with total radical activism ... that is, if you want to live to see retirement.
While the elderly, the poor and minorities have endured poor or no access to health care because of greed, ageism, classicism and racism, baby boomers need to take a virile stance on reform with more vigor than just for Viagra and fight for better coverage as health will take center stage as they will age faster than Jimi Hendrix's guitar ever ripped.
The age of thirty is long gone now and so are the days of living with the political and ideological carefree swagger, immaturity and laissez faire attitude that so often comes with youth.
The oldest of the Baby Boomers will turn 60 years old this fall -- about the same age as seemingly ageless icons like Mick Jagger and Stevie Nicks. The younger set includes Wayne Gretsky and Johnny Depp, imagine that. Farrah Fawcett, the sunny symbol for health, youth and beauty, passed away at the age of sixty from cancer.
Baby Boomers represent the largest group of health care consumers in this country and are officially classified as the population born during the post-World War II era, born between 1945 and 1965.
And for those who fit into this 20-year generation and those even a decade younger -- many suffer in silence without much fight, some for pure vanity's sake and the fear of facing the fact that age and illness is now their baby too, not that of just their parents.
"It was a wonderful time to be young," actress Margot Kidder once said. "The 1960s didn't end until about 1976. We all believed in 'Make Love, Not War.' We were idealistic innocents, despite the drugs and sex."
But it is a time for making political war now as our nation's social, moral and physical health has become a matter of life and death. You can't fight "this" war with pacifism, a tied-dyed shirt and a free outdoor concert.
According to a report from The Commonwealth Fund, of those ages 50-64, more than 60% are diagnosed with serious and chronic illness including heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, arthritis, cancer and high cholesterol.
What should shock boomers into total sobriety is that seven million of their sisters and brothers; one-fifth have been uninsured since age 50 or currently or have no insurance.
Family Physician Lee Green, M.D. of the University of Michigan Health System, says the impact of the boomer generation's aging on the health care system has been referred to as "an age quake because medically, it is the equivalent of a massive earthquake. The demands on the system are enormous and growing."
53 percent of patients who visited a doctor during 2001 were over age 45, compared to only 42 percent in 1992, according to the CDC's latest National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey.
While the total number of people over 45 rose by 11 percent over the last decade, trips to the doctor increased by 26 percent for that age group.
Leading diagnoses for ailing baby boomers during 2001 were high blood pressure, arthritis and related joint disorders, the common cold, and diabetes. Doctor visits for diabetes went up 63 percent between 1992 and 200, and was the primary diagnosis with 27 million doctor visits in 2001.
The hard truth is that most serious medical conditions suffered by boomers can easily be prevented with a healthy diet, regular exercise, and abstaining from smoking and alcohol.
A very handsome boomer on the older side who drives a red convertible and thinks he's 25, let's call him Jack, told me at the local Starbucks the debate over health care reform is for the poor and truly elderly. By the way, I notice him at the pharmacy quite frequently -- I wonder what Jack is scoring so often?
A hypochondriac friend in her 50's who can't afford her meds says there's nothing "she" can do about health care reform anyway. I suppose the dope she gets with her medical marijuana card makes life "mellow" for her, at least until she gets sick with a true disease or illness.
"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy," said Martin Luther King.
Seniors and older baby boomers are seeing doctors more often to manage multiple chronic conditions, obtain newly-available drugs and seek preventive care, according to the CDC.
Seniors and older baby boomers are also seeing doctors more often to manage multiple chronic conditions, obtain newly-available drugs and seek preventive care.
"I'm always relieved when someone is delivering a eulogy and I realize I'm listening to it," George Carlin said.
The amount of money spent of prescription medication is rising and totaled 1.3 billion in 2001, revealing both the availability of many new and popular types of medication the need to prescribe multiple drugs for those with multiple conditions
The following is just one story about a best friend of the baby boomer generation who couldn't afford adequate healthcare insurance and what happened to him.
He was elegant, kind and one of the most loving fathers I have had the honor of knowing.
Five days a week for two decades, he would leave his home at 4 am to battle traffic for two hours to return to young daughters who waited with noses pressed to the glass for the sound of their father's car.
When the economy went bad, he lost his job and began taking late-night courses to beef up his skills for which had been awarded two Emmy's.
With unemployment came less money for insurance which he kept for his wife and daughters but stopped paying for himself. Jokingly, he said he was the healthy one in the family as his wife had a pre-existing condition; the most foul and degrading phrase of our time.
For months while he looked for work and learned new skills, we talked over our neighborhood fence, watching our children run through the sprinklers on hot summer evenings, and taking them on bike rides around the block.
One chilly fall around Halloween when the air was crisp as the fallen leaves, after we told our children to put jackets on before they could play, he told me that his back was hurting.
I asked this 49 year-old neighbor who did not look a day over 35 with his pristine posture, boyish grin and steady clear eyes how long he had been in pain.
He said it had been more than a year, about a month before he lost his job, and that it had gotten much worse over the past month.
In the way that brave unselfish men speak, he said "it was nothing" and that he could not afford to pay a doctor out of pocket, end of story.
Two months later he passed away from cancer that had spread throughout his body. He died at home, while his daughters watched him taken away by a coroner from the driveway he had proudly swept every day.
His oldest child, about 10 without showing tears or feeling as she spoke about her father at the eulogy said , "I know that daddy's are not supposed to die, especially when their children are young," while pictures of him and his daughters flashed across a large screen to the song 'Over the Rainbow sung by Israel Kamakawiw-Ole.
With healthcare reform a debate today nearly as explosive as the gloom and doom of war, the magical and elusive age of the sixties and seventies is a period as should look back on and heed-- a time when so many Americans were willing to sacrifice their lives, precious time and trade so-called political correctness for personal and communal responsibility.
Unlike his brothers, Kennedy lived a full life, past middle age and into a ripe and succulent golden age. His legacy should not be in vain as he lived to see the 50's, 60's and 70's-- tirelessly fighting for the rights of all Americans so they could live an integral life and be proud and be healthy enough to shout out loudly that they are indeed "Spirited Americans."
With healthcare reform a debate nearly as explosive as the gloom and doom of war, the magical and elusive age of the sixties and seventies is a period we should look back on and heed-- a time when so many Americans were willing to risk and sacrifice their lives, precious time and trade so-called political correctness for personal and communal responsibility.
To my baby boomer friends, let this be a protest that you see is not one that is in vain, but rather, one that will make the difference between whether it will be vital blood or a disease that will infiltrate your veins, hope and physical and political autonomy.
This is not the time for apathy or denial, it may just be your last chance to revere yourselves as the generation of peace and love . . . man.
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Joan Walsh
Kerry Lauerman
Salon.com
Comments
It is so nice to see you here on my Open Salon blog.
Yes, you are indeed "lucky" to have healthcare through work, which sadly is becoming more of the exception rather than the rule. It is truly sad for the very young and elderly whose loved ones often have to choose between buying nutritious and adequate food or healthcare, both of which are necessities for a healthy life.
I also had a really good friend who did not have healthcare, and unfortunately he passed away because he found out too late that he had cancer, and then could not afford the costly medical treatment when he did find out.
Thankfully I had health insurance when my daughter had open heart surgery at six months old . . . I can't even imagine it.