Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
27% of Medicare's annual $327 billion budget goes to care for patients in their final year of life.
The question is can we still afford this kind of expense, and is it right to be spending this much for a hopeless causes when there are more productive ways to spend this money that would be in the better interest of the country and the general welfare of the people.
How could the system be improved.
27% of Medicare's annual $327 billion budget goes to care for patients in their final year of life.
The question is can we still afford this kind of expense, and is it right to be spending this much for a hopeless causes when there are more productive ways to spend this money that would be in the better interest of the country and the general welfare of the people.
How could the system be improved.
People need to learn to let go with dignity.
I know some doctors and besides quitting smoking and losing weight, the one thing they wish they could get their patients to do is to write up a 'living will'....especially the seriously ill/older ones. They say a lot of the "flogging" they do on elderly patients is due to the fact that the patient didn't have a living will and one member of the family is insisting on doing "everything" to save Nana, so the doctor has to do it.
27% of Medicare's annual $327 billion budget goes to care for patients in their final year of life.
The question is can we still afford this kind of expense, and is it right to be spending this much for a hopeless causes when there are more productive ways to spend this money that would be in the better interest of the country and the general welfare of the people.
How could the system be improved.
Well, duh. Medicare is for patients over 65. Average life expectancy in the US is is 76 for males and 81 for females.
You don't want to treat or hospitalize patients over 65? They're going to die soon anyways.
If we actually had a health care system instead of a sick care system, maybe we could turn that around. Disease prevention, and teaching people how to make healthy choices. Instead we are bombarded with lies, drugs and chemicals, that perpetuate disease. The older we are, the more likely these things will have taken a fatal toll.
yeah, I have no idea what the point of this thread is. Eliminate everyone's final year of life? It's expensive when human health starts failing. There's no getting around that.
We spend over $500b on defense. Let's look at that for savings before we start talking about cutting funding for grandma's healthcare.
27% of Medicare's annual $327 billion budget goes to care for patients in their final year of life.
The question is can we still afford this kind of expense, and is it right to be spending this much for a hopeless causes when there are more productive ways to spend this money that would be in the better interest of the country and the general welfare of the people.
How could the system be improved.
First you ration by age, what's next, by usefullness, contribution to the greater good?
I do think we can allow those that want to end this experience, a dignified way out. Let the patient decide, if they are able.
I have not given it much thought, but I think we need to come up with a better system than we currently have.
I agree, and I'm in health care, too. Unfortunately we have lost the ability to talk to each other, and you see it only took about 3 posts before someone brought in the term "death panels" so I don't think we're any closer to being able to talk about it in any intelligent, non-partisan way.
IMO the medical system does a great many things with profits first and quality of life secondary in the medical decision process.
The most egregious example from my own personal experience was when a very well respected University hospital decided to perform back surgery on one of our residents, a 96 year old female. No one that age should be put under anesthesia let alone operated on without even trying conservative measures first. End result was she was in ICU for more than 2 weeks, then sent back to us, where she lingered in agonizing pain and misery for another 2 weeks before she died. She was begging us to let her die from the minute she got back.
Surgery+ 2+ weeks ICU probably came to about $200-$300,000.00 for the hospital, paid for by Medicare, with no benefit to resident at all except to make the last month of her life the worst month of her life.
P.S. I feel I need to add that I do not think cutting Medicare funding is the solution. The problem is the way our health care is delivered, and the extremely high costs of our health care.
yeah, I have no idea what the point of this thread is. Eliminate everyone's final year of life? It's expensive when human health starts failing. There's no getting around that.
We spend over $500b on defense. Let's look at that for savings before we start talking about cutting funding for grandma's healthcare.
I agree. I just read that if we cut the defense budget 85%, we would still be spending more than any other country. And it's not defense, it's offense. And we don't even know the billions that are spent on black ops.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
It's expensive when human health starts failing. There's no getting around that.
