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1:27 p.m. | April 23, 2002
what happened at the meeting today I not only hate government run bureaucratic health care but I now loathe it. I hate politics and I hate red tape and I hate the crap you have to go through to get just something you need (food, shelter), much less something want (transportation to doctor's appointments). It�s an uphill battle all the way. I don't know if I wrote about it in here before but the Saskatchewan provincial government had decided to start an attendant care program. This means that they will give you the money to hire your own care workers and decide who they are and all that sort of thing. In theory it would allow people like me who are mostly independent but physically can't do some of the things necessary to life. (Getting dressed, making meals, heading to the bathroom on your own.) So, today the meeting was to get through the crap that the government released and find out what it really meant. So, here's what it really means. There are huge restrictions, massive ones. For one, you have to qualify for home care (which is an agency funded by the government whereby people come into your home and help take care of your needs, some of them anyway). Home care has limits as to how many hours they will come into your home as well as limits on what they will do once there. So the most number of hours they will provide is 80 hours a month. Currently, living at home, I use about 72. Basically all they do is come in, help me get up, help me to the bathroom once a day and put me into bed. Somewhere in there are 2 baths a week. So you can see how much more I would need (and that my mother takes care of) in the way of hours. I would need meals made, nighttime formula mixed, more than 2 baths a week (we fit another 2 or more in when I live at home), help with cleaning, grocery shopping, laundry... so I don't think all that would fit into another 4 hours a month. So no living on my own for me. The government actually had the gall to say that if the care you can get through them wasn't enough then you could always hire more to supplement and pay for it yourself. That is the lowest bastardly thing to say, most people that would need this kind of care are on social assistance or maybe work part time. They do not have the money to hire extra over what the government will give them! So only those who can afford to get extra help can live on their own basically. Also if you don't qualify for home care (which is the first requirement of this whole deal) you are completely screwed. So if you need care, you are alone and poor, you are screwed right up the ass with an iron dildo that has been sitting in a fire for a week. How expected and not ironic this is. It used to be ironic, but it happens so often you just shake your head and say, "yep that's pretty much the way everything works." Two tiers, one for the middle class and the poor and one for the rich. Then I think well why bother with this program if it's not going to help anyone? Well this is why. Organizations such as the Canadian Paraplegic Association have been lobbying for years for better options to be available for those who need long term care. So this is to placate those organizations. They make it look good on paper and the organizations say yay. Until they read the fine print I�m sure. Let�s all hold up our big middle finger to the Saskatchewan government and yell sit and spin. Fuck you assholes.
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This is my blogchalk:
Canada, Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, , English, , Female, 26-30, Reading.