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Town
Hall attendees tackle age concerns
Senior health care focus of discussion
Kerry
Fehr-Snyder and Jodie Snyder
The
Arizona Republic, May 20, 2003
PRESCOTT- Basic health care for the state's elderly should be a right,
participants of the Arizona Town Hall said Monday.
But they had a tougher time with some other questions: Who should pay? How
to prepare for the coming boom? And how to include the growing number of
minority and border residents while focusing on prevention?
"The biggest planning issue is denial," said Catherine Eden,
director of the Arizona Department of Health Services.
Many of the nation's 76 million baby boomers aren't prepared financially
or emotionally for old age, she said.
Raena Honan, director of elderly services for the Hopi Tribe, agreed,
saying friends her age (50) are more willing to save money for a face lift
than retirement or health care.
"This cohort is more concerned with going backward than going
forward," she said.
The biannual civic gathering drew 133 participants ranging from hospital
executives to consumer advocates who will recommend legislative priorities
to the governor, state Legislature and business leaders.
Participants wrestled with issues of access to health care, demographic
shifts and healthy lifestyles.
For their part, physicians are more interested in becoming cosmetic
surgeons because they receive more money from patients and bypass the
stress of traditional gerontology, noted Jaime Molera, former state
superintendent of public instruction and now a consultant.
Barry Gold, executive director of the Governor's Council on Aging, said
Arizona seniors likely will find it "less practical to live in rural
areas" as the number of nursing homes, dialysis centers and other
health care facilities shrink.
Smaller families also mean fewer available caregivers to help aging
parents, Gold said. Seniors are also opting to live in large retirement
communities that cut them off from younger residents who could be
potential caregivers, said Donna Rae Cintora, president of the Good
Samaritan Medical Center Service League.
Susan Levine, executive director of Hospice of the Valley and Sen. Barry
Goldwater's widow, said most of the elderly spend their final years living
with a chronic disease.
"Most linger in a very debilitated state," she said, adding that
they often wind up in a long-term care facility with less intensive
medical care than a nursing home.
Arizona has the highest number of referrals to hospice, Levine said,
explaining that many elderly choose to die at home.
The most contentious issue Monday came while debating how to refocus the
health care system from one that treats disease to one that prevents it.
Adaline Klemmedson, a vice president for University Medical Center in
Tucson, suggested charging cigarette smokers higher premiums for medical
insurance.
But DeeDee Pederson, of Cochise County Aging & Social Services,
objected to the idea of creating "the lifestyle police" and said
it would be unfair to single out smoking over alcohol, junk food,
inactivity and any other unhealthy behaviors that contribute to the top
diseases.
Dr. Keith Frey, chairman of the department of family medicine at the Mayo
Clinic in Scottsdale, said targeting "self-destructive behavior"
is the best way to shift to preventative medicine.
Aaron Trujillo, a recent dietetics student at Arizona State University
East, agreed, arguing that making smokers pay higher insurance rates is
what the life insurance industry has been doing for years.
The group decided that the health care system should reward non-smokers
and others who eat right and exercise. Many argued the prevention message
needs to start early with school physical education and nutrition classes,
many of which have been cut in recent years.
"Community and public health prevention programs take a lot of
time," said Gold, of the Governor's Council, adding that he's
encouraged by the sun-wise program begun by Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher
Curt Schilling and his wife, Shonda. The program is aimed at
schoolchildren, who receive most of their lifetime sun exposure by age 18
if they don't wear sunscreen, hats and other protective clothing.
"It's really in the long run we see these gains," Gold said.
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