Aging and Medicare

I am sitting at my fathers bedside in his hospital room waiting for a Dr to decided weather Dad is incapacitated enough to warrant a hospital stay of 3 nights so that his Medicare will pay for him to move to a nursing home. Now Dad had been living on his own with a visit from me everyday to check on him. He has been going downhill the past few months but the last 5 days it has been a straight slide down. He is now unable to transfer himself from his scooter to the couch, scooter to bed or scooter to bath. Now it will have to be a nursing home for him, but he is kind of looking forward to moving. In his apartment he is all alone and after scaring himself by getting lost in the complex one day he is not eager to get out and do that again. The last few times he has been in the nursing homes he has taken about 2 weeks to warm up to the staff and make friends but after that he does seem to enjoy himself.

I am starting down a long slippery slope with our health system, I am still trying to understand the difference between Medicare, Medicaid and TriCare for veterans. Just when I think I have it sorted out another "expert" throws my knowledge out the window! Oh what fun it can be.