In an article posted in Forbes, Patricia Barnes, an attorney and author, has explained that the statement made by Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg back in 2011 constitutes age discrimination.
Back then, he said the United States should deny treatment to the elderly with chronic medical conditions.
Bloomberg, a former NYC mayor, said, “If you show up with prostate cancer and you’re 95, we should say ‘go and enjoy, have a nice day, live a long life.’ There’s no cure and we can’t do anything. If you’re a young person, we should do something about it.”
He, in fact, warned that society was not ready to make hard choices when it comes to treating older people, which is going to bankrupt us.
The statement surfaced again after he proposed a healthcare plan to improve the lives of people who are retired. His plan includes giving low-income workers access to retirement saving plans to boost Social Security. The former NYC mayor said he would work on reducing high drug prices and offering federal coverage for long-term healthcare costs.
Barnes, who is a consultant on employment discrimination, said Bloomberg’s statement constitutes age discrimination.
She explained that the American healthcare system is infamously inefficient and extremely expensive. In the United States, healthcare costs four times more than Canada’s healthcare system.
She wrote that the U.S. Congress has “failed to act in the face of intense lobbying by insurers and pharmaceutical companies. And why is aging singled out as opposed to other conditions, such as obesity? Some 40 percent of American adults aged 20 and over are obese, a condition that can lead to coronary heart disease and stroke.”
In the United States, coronary heart disease and stroke cost nearly $200 billion per year and cause $131 billion in lost productivity on the job, according to the CDC.
Giving the example of Dr. Robert Butler’s definition of aging, Barnes explained that Bloomberg’s 2011 statement seemed profoundly misguided and it’s like scapegoating older Americans. For more information, you can read the article titled, “Bloomberg Said U.S. Should Deny Treatment To Old People With Chronic Disease” by Barnes.
