Don’t blame seniors for federal budget woes

In his April 8 commentary (“Our children vs. grandparents”) Robert Samuelson seemed to pose an insolvable conundrum. He states, “It’s common knowledge that spending on the elderly … has squeezed other federal programs, inflated budget deficits and created pressure for higher taxes.” It is also “squeezing state programs — schools, police, parks and infrastructure.”

But I would say hat the problem is not the elderly. It is the medical industry.

When we are sick or hurting, we seek help in a vast black pit. We have no idea what our options are, what they will cost or how long it will take us to heal. More than once, I have been told, “When you decide to have this procedure, we will submit it to insurance and see what they will pay.”

My husband recently had an unusual lesion on his wrist removed and biopsied. We were not told what any of this would cost; we relied on our insurance. A month later, we learned that Medicare was charged $399 for a 0.5-ounce tube of antibiotic. The pharmaceutical industry has no competition and can thus charge literally an arm and a leg. Where is the competition on which our capitalist economy is supposed to be based?

There is nothing else in our society that we would buy without having any idea how much it would cost. Not a car, not a house, not college. No one — and I mean no one, not even the so-called experts — can tell us on what the cost of health care is based. There is no manual. There is no explanation of diagnostic codes.

Seniors live in fear of a medical emergency or chronic disease bankrupting them, taking savings and homes and leaving us at the mercy of strangers.