Health care is much too expensive in the United States for everyone. It is especially too high for the elderly and disabled. These people cannot afford quality care along with their medical bills. The health care is too high and they often times must pay for a caretaker.

The government should help everyone out with these high costs. The government should either make a law with a limit on the costs, or pay for everyone's expenses. If the government pays for the people that are on welfare to go to the doctor, and all of their other medical expenses, then they should pay for the middle and high class people, too. Just because people work and make their own living does no mean that they can afford these high prices. If people have a lot of money they should not have to pay for their own medical expenses just because they have worked hard to get their money, when the people who do not work, and are on welfare get theirs paid for.

The government should also pay for quality care for the elderly. The government should pay for good in-home care unless the individual chooses to live in a nursing home. If they do choose to live in the nursing home, then the government should pay for a fair priced nursing home.

Most elderly people choose to have in-home care over nursing home care. Nursing homes average $30,000 to $40,000 a year. A good in-home care program, such as ADAPT, American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today, range from $4,000 to $12,000 a year. A person with a good job only makes $30,000 to $40,000 a year. If one of the individual's family members pay this, then where do they get money to live?

In most cases people choose not to live in a nursing home. They think that they are treated badly, which they are in many cases. Just because people are elderly or disabled should not take away their rights or make them any less important than anyone else.

Nursing homes have been known for cruelty and improper care. One former nursing home patient says this about two different nursing homes. The staff tried to break him. Sometimes aids tied him to his bed. They would drag him into cold showers as punishment. To make him use the bathroom on a schedule convenient for the nurses, they would put ice cubes down his pants. It was a form of torture for him, since the cold set off his spastic muscles. On several occasions, he was given a suppository before sleep and, since he could not move by himself, he would spend the night lying in his own feces. Many times he wanted to kill himself. He planned it, too.

This kind of treatment cannot go on in these homes. If the nursing homes are going to stay in operation then they need to be more closely investigated and watched. Abuse of the nation's elderly is a growing problem. If we do not do anything about it then it will just continue to get worse. We have to remember, this might be the place where we get stuck in a few years to die. No one should have to live the last years of his life or any of their years in a place like this. The people working in nursing homes should stop and think, "is this the way I would treat my own parents, or want to be treated myself?" If the answer is "no," then they should not be working in this place.

It is not a person's fault that they are disabled or become too old to care for themselves. These people used to be the leaders in America. If it were not for elderly people, then we would not be here to take care of them.

The government should provide an attendant or attendants to come and stay with the elderly and disabled during the day. They could check on them in the night also. They would be taken care of just as well as they would be taken care of in a nursing home. It would just be less expensive and better for us to pay this $4,000 to $12,000 a year for the person to live in the comfort of his own home and have quality care.

We should take some of this government money which is spent on things such as the multi-thousand dollar political leaders' offices which are less important and put it towards the in-home care. If that is not enough money then we could raise the taxes just enough to provide for these people.

The life of a human is the most important thing in this country and we need to make sure that they are treated right for the whole time that they live.

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