Re: LTC insurance

According to the ADA, is OBM (or any government tax-payer agency) allowed to choose a contractor who discriminates based on disability? I know that the ADA prohibits private industry from discriminating based on disability. Are Federal government contractors exempt?

Disabled Federal workers pay the same taxes as anyone else, so they should be able to obtain the same government services and benefits. Or else, disabled Federal workers should get a tax discount for the services they cannot receive.

As I was told, a court case is wending its way through the courts. I hope that the disabled plaintiff prevails.

Re: LTC insurance

IT Specialist, SSA -

I was in the hospital during the introductory open season. A teenager had crippled me in a head-on collision. During the next open season I found out that I couldn't be considered for the federal LTC.

The point is that if the government had offered the LTC a month or two earlier, I would have been the ideal, athletic, robust individual they were looking for. I find it ironic that the teenager that caused my disqualification will continue to be eligible for the things now denied me.

People who support discrimination are the same people that oppose social solutions to the discrimination.

My husband works for the state labor department. He says that the early results of these policies is showing that the insurers resist payment and it sometimes takes over a year and a lot of lawyer costs to even get part of what is needed and owed. Thorn's comment argues against insurance as a viable solution.

Re: LTC insurance

I find it ironic that McCain, Bush, and the Republicans want to subject the value of health insurance benefits given out by employers to income taxes -- in other words, they want to raise taxes.

Though why should I be surprised?

Re: Question for boomers

Scientist - I feel like you do. I had to make the decision to turn off life-support for my mother, and am likely to have to make that decision for others very shortly and again probably in the next few years. The Schiavo case was monstrous, as was the older instance in NY where that poor man had to hold off hospital staff with a gun to turn his son's respirator off. We have the attitude in this country that if you can do it, you should; that thinking is not universal, even in the West, and we need to get over it. We also need to consider the situation in regard to severly defective newborns. Something with a head like a golfball is not going to grow a brain, but some people will insist that such an infant be kept going - at great cost to others, might I add. A good book on this subject is "Born to Die?" by Earl S. Shelp.

Re: Question for boomers

I needed surgery for an unruptured brain aneurysm a while back. I was appalled that I didn't have the option to ask them to terminate my life if the surgery didn't go well.

What a waste of resources and how terrible for loved ones to have a 40 year old vegetable living in a nursing home.