I'm just an old blue lady in a really red state, but that does make me thoughtful sometimes. Right now I'm thinking about what all the senior assisted living centers I'm seeing in our few cities probably means. I think they mean that the Republican legislature in my state is putting itself out of business a few years down the road. Let me explain.
I am a Missouri woman, have lived here my entire life. Our state legislature was once reliably Democratic, but like most of the Midwest, it is now a bastion of tea party type Republicans. They are mostly from small towns, dislike and distrust the big cities and do what they can to march Missouri solidly forward into third world state status. They refused to set up the insurance exchanges for full participation in the ACA , and Medicaid is a stingy program here. So, we are pretty much your average red state. But, this may be what ends up doing our good old boys in.
I have family in Columbia, Missouri, so I travel there often. Columbia is a charming little city, with our state University and large University-affiliated medical complex plus more hospitals and excellent doctors. It sits halfway between St. Louis and Kansas City, among small towns and beautiful farm country. I have, over the past two years, noticed a marked increase in the number of assisted living facilities in the town, as well as senior apartments and condominiums. Granted, Columbia is growing a lot, but the number of these senior apartments in a college town is amazing. At the same time, hospitals in small rural towns in Missouri are struggling to stay afloat. More will close, if Medicaid is cut. And that's something our state legislature is always looking to cut.
As those small hospitals close and our population ages, the time has come where these two problems collide, and that collision brings moves from small towns to cities. Cities like Columbia.
When there is no hospital in a small town, or the doctors begin retiring, or a peron develops a health issue that sends him or her for medical assistance an hour away, it's a real wake-up call as to what will happen in a serious medical emergency. So, if the health care leaves, the people won't be far behind, starting with the oldest and most vulnerable. And when the people leave those little towns die. And when those little towns die they don't need some teapartying, Medicaid-cutting, underemployed lawyer to represent them in Jefferson City.
As people move to larger metropolitan areas, even if it's just a city of one hundred thousand like Columbia,, over time, their thinking begins to change. They become more cosmopolitan. It takes time, but they become less susceptible to the classic GOP scares. Pretty soon, perhaps two or three election cycles, the legislature isn't just a place favorite sons of small towns come to become semi- important. Hopefully government will begin to mean something again.
So, keep an eye on how many senior complexes you see expanding in metropolitan areas. It may be a bellwether of political change, all brought to you by Republicans, as they cut their own throats.