For Profit Senior Care

[chuckChuck]

Hell froze over last night! Just kidding. Its rare that anyone agrees with me on Agriville. LOL

Glad to see we are we are mostly in agreement about fixing the problem with senior care in Canada.

How to fix it is a big question. I am not opposed to private ownership,but I have a hard time thinking that there is a lot of profit in providing care for seniors if the best affordable care possible for all seniors is your goal.

To provide any significant amount profit you have to charge a lot, or cut services, or use cheaper labour.

I am not sure if any of those options make sense when the goal should be to provide the best affordable care possible.

Perhaps there is a case for well off seniors to pay more for extras in privately owned long term care homes. But my priority would be making sure everyones care is affordable and of good quality. Most seniors don't have a lot of money because of inflation. The dollars they earned and saved are worth far less into their senior years.

National standards, strict enforcement of standards, paying employees well enough that they can work full time in one facility would be a good start. If privately owned facilities can meet these high standards then that might be okay. But I think the evidence is that many of the privately owned facilities were understaffed and provided lower levels of care and in many cases were awfull.

There is a shortage of beds in many areas. When there is a shortage seniors are forced into taking what is available. Government should be investing in more facilities.

[Hamloc]

[QUOTE=chuckChuck;459070]Hell froze over last night! Just kidding. Its rare that anyone agrees with me on Agriville. LOL

Glad to see we are we are mostly in agreement about fixing the problem with senior care in Canada.

How to fix it is a big question. I am not opposed to private ownership,but I have a hard time thinking that there is a lot of profit in providing care for seniors if the best affordable care possible for all seniors is your goal.

Chuck did you even look at the CBC article on Rivera retirement homes that I suggested. Here is one excerpt:”The company’s board of directors is appointed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his cabinet through orders in council.” Rivera is owned by a federal crown corporation. I certainly agree that the cost to individuals to stay in extended care homes is too high in many cases and the level of care isn’t what it should be but more government certainly isn’t always the solution.

[chuckChuck]

In Australia and perhaps Mallee can comment, but stricter government regulation and enforcement have improved care and the lower number of covid deaths in long term care in Australia reflects their better standards.

There will be no easy fix to improve care. But government will have to be part of the solution. Doug Ford announced a plan yesterday to invest in more beds. According to one expert investing more in home care programs is lower cost and leads to a better quality of life. That doesn't work for seniors who need higher levels of care but building more facilities is only part of the solution.

Privately owned long term care facilities are not keen on stricter government regulations because it will likely mean lower profits. As I said from the beginning profiting from long term care for seniors in my mind is unethical if it leads to lower levels of care. Why would we think extracting profits from seniors in the final years of their lives is acceptable, especially low income seniors.