60 Minutes--"So This is Pulling the Plug on Granny" (Harry Reid, unemployment)
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Basically, people get the type of end of life health care that they want today, and they will continue to do so. The government is not going to be making any case by case evaluations or decisions for anybody. They will certainly collect and publish studies and statistics so that doctors and patients alike can have the best information to work from, but it is the doctor and patient (or patient surrogate) who will continue to make the decisions. Those who want to hold out for every last possible second of life will be able to do so. We can afford it. But it would be well if more people were more comfortable with and more accepting of death so that fewer and fewer people ended up choosing to spend gazillions on ekeing out that extra day or two at the end of a long life. It would be well also to make your own end of life decisions before they are forced upon you or yours. Such decisions are better made when they can be addressed calmly and rationally and discussed with loved ones in advance so that whatever the plan might be, everyone knows what it is when the time comes.
if you have pre-existing condition, then I'd recommend you never change your job because if you do, you'll never have medical insurance again. That's the way it works today.
The way it works today is it doesn't matter if you never change your job. The boss will lay you off anyway if he ever finds out you do have a preexisting condition that could cost him $$$$$'s down the road.
I saw the piece and with all the waste in Medicare why has the Govt not clamped down on the fraud. A Pap smear should not be done on a 90 year old woman with cancer so why would the Govt allow such charges ?
This is a problem complicated by the Political Correctness of our country.
Problems with the status quo:
#1--she is a female
#2--she is 90 years old
Both categories give this person "legal privileges" that defy common sense.
Didn't you know that an 85-year-old person can walk into a bank, apply for a 30-year mortgage, and get approved??
Again, common sense has departed from this country.
What is your proposal to prevent this, though? Are you willing to accept higher levels of taxation to finance the associated costs of keeping everyone alive at all costs as long as possible? If your solution is private insurance, you'd have to accept that the costs would be offset by much higher premiums on everyone else. Which is basically taxation anyway. If not one of those two approaches, then what is your plan? An honest question.
Goeie middag!
Excellent point. And it is possible to keep everyone alive forever these days, but why would you want to if you had no quality of life.
I'd lost respect for 60 Minutes but I commend them on this story, which was very well done. I particularly liked the main doctor they interviewed. He was articulate and intelligent in explaining the issues, in a nutshell.
Death is a part of life. When it's time to go, it's time to go. There has been a great de-emphasis on preparing for death, and that needs to be brought back. Many people my age never actually saw anyone die; but in previous generations, it was the norm to have your loved one in his or her bed, surrounded by family in those last moments.
There will always be some new drug or new procedure or new toy to "try" to prolong life but that doesn't mean we have to use them. It used to be that a family's religious leader or doctor would step up to the plate and help the patient and family deal with the inevitable. Now many religious leaders are too confused about the issues and many doctors are too frightened of being sued. Family or patients who are brave enough to want to face the truth are often left to feel like the odd man out, if not accused of being part of "the death panels" or whatever the insult of the day is.
One of the reasons I left the intensive care unit is because I felt that what I was doing was unethical -- keeping corpses "alive" because modern medicine had mucked with the natural order of things and changed all the rules and definitions. Once you play God by intervening and applying various life support measures, you've set yourself up to be accused of "playing God" by pulling the metaphorical plug.
If you are going to have a hard time turning off the ventilator, maybe you shouldn't turn ON the ventilator to begin with. Some people have great difficulty knowing how to deal with these kinds of decisions after life support has already been initiated.
Medical care is complex and when it's inappropriately given, it becomes even more complex. A lot of money, time, resources, not to mention family anguish, is expended, and for what?
My main regret is that it took a horrible health care bill to bring this issue to the forefront, which will ensure that won't get serious attention from some segment of the population. I wish that religious leaders were showing more leadership on this.
There has been a great de-emphasis on preparing for death, and that needs to be brought back.
Let's see-----no talk at all about preparing for the eventuality of death; unending talk about the virtues of screwing anything and anybody in the climb up the ladder to limitless wealth and power. Anyone sense a relationship here?
WHO says we can afford it? That was the point of the whole 60 Min. segment---that we CAN'T afford it. The vast majority concur.
What we can't afford is up to 30 cents of every health care dollar going for something other than health care. Cut that to 6 or 7 cents and all of a sudden even heroic end of life care seems affordable. But as I said earler, the idea that a lower and lower proportion of the population would come to want, expect, or even tolerate such interventions would be a good thing.
When you go to the hospital, you will be asked if you want to be resuscitated. If you can't express your wishes, your family will be asked. It helps to have had these discussions in the past. It helps to have a living will, which many "grandmas" do not have. If you can't/don't say "no", the hospital is legally obligated to do everything possible to keep you alive, even when the last shred of hope is gone.
I gave a talk on this at my church and many of the people, some seniors themselves, said "I don't want what happened to my (mother/father) to happen to me". If you've seen a prolongation of life beyond all hope, you never want it to happen to you.
When you go to the hospital, you will be asked if you want to be resuscitated. If you can't express your wishes, your family will be asked. It helps to have had these discussions in the past. It helps to have a living will, which many "grandmas" do not have. If you can't/don't say "no", the hospital is legally obligated to do everything possible to keep you alive, even when the last shred of hope is gone.
I gave a talk on this at my church and many of the people, some seniors themselves, said "I don't want what happened to my (mother/father) to happen to me". If you've seen a prolongation of life beyond all hope, you never want it to happen to you.
Exactly. But apparently now not prolonging life beyond reasonable hope has morphed into euthenasia according to some.
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That was the point of the whole 60 Min. segment---that we CAN'T afford it. The vast majority concur.
