[speaker001:] okay so what do you think about uh uh health care for the elderly
[speaker002:] well I've got a mom who is uh eighty six years old this year and uh she she uh sometimes well she lived with us for a few years six actually six years and then she moved uh to live with my bother because she got tired of teenagers but uh in my house uh I think health care for the elderly is uh is uh its kind of a difficult I say difficult I mean there's as your body is running downhill they can spend an infinite amount to keep you alive
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] and on the other hand it's kind of nice uh if you're taking care of an elderly person to have somebody come along and pick up the the uh the tab the the one thing that that mom got into was that was pretty nice was an HMO they took all the money from from uh Medicare how should I say it uh this HMO thing said uh had an agreement with Medicare that said uh on the average you're gonna spend X amount of dollars per year so if you'll give us that money we promise to take care of of uh all the bills
[speaker001:] all the bills does that include um nursing home type care
[speaker002:] no this is just you know standard
[speaker001:] just strictly health care
[speaker002:] health care like you'd get from your employer
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] and uh so at one point uh and and that was pretty good for her because uh there was a set of things that she knew she was covered for and uh and
[speaker001:] right that's hundred percent coverage so it's that's good
[speaker002:] well it was close to a hundred percent there were things that they wouldn't cover but they like they bought her a uh
[speaker001:] hm
[speaker002:] a uh let's see they bought her a wheelchair and uh one one thing that was good about it was that it uh uh before that time she was always subject she she'd have these salesmen that would call and say hey if you'll just buy this handy dandy motorized uh easy chair for three times the the real price uh Medicare will pay for it and so she was always buying stuff that she didn't need
[speaker001:] um
[speaker002:] and then finding out that Medicare was either going to pay just a small fraction or no Medicare wouldn't pay for it
[speaker001:] hm
[speaker002:] so it kind of put the uh salesmen at bay put it that way
[speaker001:] right so where does does she well um
[speaker002:] so how about you
[speaker001:] I guess in terms of where do you is your mother now in a a nursing home is
[speaker002:] no she's still she's staying with my uh actually she's staying with my my brother's son who's doesn't have teenagers
[speaker001:] right I guess that's the big question is um what what happens when they begin to get older I have a grandmother and it she's not really uh you know she's getting to the point where she almost can't be in a nursing home she spent some time with my parents some time now she's with an uncle of mine living with them
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] but she requires a lot of attention and she can't really exist on her own any longer and that's that's kind of a difficult situation that that she has to live with one of her children
[speaker002:] yeah it was difficult for us to because uh  well actually it it was all right as long as she could could get back and forth to the uh you know to the bathroom and things like that but when she got when she got really sick and she couldn't move very much then it was exhausting absolutely exhausting
[speaker001:] right yeah
[speaker002:] you know so
[speaker001:] yeah my uh my grandmother is hers is physically she's in not too bad of shape she's in her upper eighties I guess forgetting in my order but uh she's uh Alzheimer's I guess
[speaker002:] oh yeah
[speaker001:] and so her memory is very poor and so she can't really be on her own but she can still do things by herself but you just have to uh kind of direct her
[speaker002:] yeah uh and that to that extent I think like I say this health care for the elderly is is uh I I think they do a lot there was one thing that that uh that helped pull my mom out of uh this oh I don't wanna know fog so to speak uh we had uh a a baby fairly late in life and uh as soon as that baby came along uh uh she paid a lot of attention to you know something to take care of I'll put it that way and something to pay attention to and and uh
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] the other thing I've noticed is that that uh pets and and uh if they have pets to take care of uh like she got yeah she got uh
[speaker001:] that's true