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Personally, I would not want to hang on in a state of dementia or bed-bound, diapered immobility, and there are many people who feel the same. So medically assisted suicide needs to be an option. But death panels sounds like specific age or health condition = time to die, whether you want to or not. No way to that.
I have read most of the posts in this thread and can understand the various viewpoints. The one thing that doesn't get mentioned often is how over-priced and over-diagnosed patients have become in nursing homes and in old age.
For example, my mother slipped out of bed and landed on her rear end. A nurse called me and I went in straight away and talked to my mother. She was okay. The nurse and several CNAs (who visit her every day, all day) also said she was okay, but the doctor on call wanted to schedule X-rays. This was the fourth or fifth time in 3 months the doctor wanted X-rays. As the primary family contact, I had the right and did turn down the request for X-rays. What would they have found? 89-year-old bones!
Same goes with eye appointments, ear appointments, dental appointments, foot appointments, etc. ad nauseum. For sure some of these are "covered by insurance", but that is what keeps insurance premiums so high: elders getting intensive care often for no good reason.
Old people are seen as cash cows by the billers in the medical infrastructure.
Personally, I would not want to hang on in a state of dementia or bed-bound, diapered immobility, and there are many people who feel the same. So medically assisted suicide needs to be an option. But death panels sounds like specific age or health condition = time to die, whether you want to or not. No way to that.
The "death panels" term was coined by religious fundamentalists who believe nobody, especially YOU, has the right to take your own life except God.
I have read most of the posts in this thread and can understand the various viewpoints. The one thing that doesn't get mentioned often is how over-priced and over-diagnosed patients have become in nursing homes and in old age.
For example, my mother slipped out of bed and landed on her rear end. A nurse called me and I went in straight away and talked to my mother. She was okay. The nurse and several CNAs (who visit her every day, all day) also said she was okay, but the doctor on call wanted to schedule X-rays. This was the fourth or fifth time in 3 months the doctor wanted X-rays. As the primary family contact, I had the right and did turn down the request for X-rays. What would they have found? 89-year-old bones!
Same goes with eye appointments, ear appointments, dental appointments, foot appointments, etc. ad nauseum. For sure some of these are "covered by insurance", but that is what keeps insurance premiums so high: elders getting intensive care often for no good reason.
Old people are seen as cash cows by the billers in the medical infrastructure.
I agree that a lot of those tests and treatments are unnecessary, but not for the reason you suggest. Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements are frequently inadequate to pay for the expense of conducting some of those tests. Unless the patient has a generous supplemental insurance policy, those patients aren't cash cows, they're losses. The driving factor is defensive medicine, wherein physicians order tests to make sure injuries and other conditions aren't missed and they aren't sued, even if those test results don't change anything.
For example, a 95 year old nursing home patient with numerous medical problems falls down and lands on her hip. If she's got a bad bruise, she gets put back in bed with pain meds as needed. If she's got a broken hip, she's not a candidate for hip surgery, so she gets put back in bed with pain meds as needed. So why get an Xray, which usually requires transferring the patient to the nearest ER by ambulance, when the results won't change the treatment, which is to keep the patient comfortable? The same for determining someone's cataracts are getting worse, etc, etc.
However, failure to get that Xray to diagnose the broken hip is a source of malpractice lawsuits, so the doctor orders the Xray. Malpractice suits (and insurance against same) add considerably to the cost of medical care. State malpractice reform would go a long way to decreasing medical costs, for the elderly and everyone else.
I have read most of the posts in this thread and can understand the various viewpoints. The one thing that doesn't get mentioned often is how over-priced and over-diagnosed patients have become in nursing homes and in old age.
For example, my mother slipped out of bed and landed on her rear end. A nurse called me and I went in straight away and talked to my mother. She was okay. The nurse and several CNAs (who visit her every day, all day) also said she was okay, but the doctor on call wanted to schedule X-rays. This was the fourth or fifth time in 3 months the doctor wanted X-rays. As the primary family contact, I had the right and did turn down the request for X-rays. What would they have found? 89-year-old bones!
Same goes with eye appointments, ear appointments, dental appointments, foot appointments, etc. ad nauseum. For sure some of these are "covered by insurance", but that is what keeps insurance premiums so high: elders getting intensive care often for no good reason.
Old people are seen as cash cows by the billers in the medical infrastructure.
It's not just the elderly. My step-son had to make 8 trips to the Dr over a 3 month period to get his gallbladder out. He joked that he probably could wipe out his deductible before they operated. He has BCBS.
If you google "are adult children responsible for parents debt" you'll see by and large the answer is no. Can they be sued for such debt? Of course, but can this be won and enforced? Not likely.
If they are successful in cutting medicaid by 800 billion dollars over 10 years,it would be impossible for the states can't make up that difference which means one of two things will happen. The elderly will be discharged from nursing homes and it will be up to their family or friends to take them in, or the family of the elderly person will be responsible for paying at least part of the bill. Here are the medi-cal daily reimbursement rates for skilled nursing facilities.
My wife is of Asian descent and she and her sisters took care of their mother during her final sickness with round the clock care at home. They made her last days as comfortable as they possibly could. Quite a change from American children who just move away and forget about their parents. It's definitely a cultural thing.
Unfortualty it's not always possible. People have to move for oppurtunites and some choose professions that limit where they can live.
I was shocked to read that 29 states have laws called “filial support” laws that could force an adult child to pick up the tab for any Medicaid or nursing home bills a parent leaves behind on death. Imagine a scenario where you are the child who has assumed duties for looking after his/her affairs. As I read this you don't even have to be a power-of-attorney to be held liable. Basically all you have to have are assets that can be seized by the state to cover the costs the state or a nursing home has incurred looking after her. The states actively using these laws are Alaska, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, and West Virginia. The article below will explain in greater detail but this is something any child who has an impoverished or near-impoverished parent to look after.
This absolutely isn't true. Ar has no suck law. Neither does WVA or Ca. Now, maybe the law requires this if all assets a parent had was turned over to living children just prior to a parent going into long term care. That I do not know for a fact.
This absolutely isn't true. Ar has no suck law. Neither does WVA or Ca. Now, maybe the law requires this if all assets a parent had was turned over to living children just prior to a parent going into long term care. That I do not know for a fact.
California's law prohibits the state from recovering costs if the parent is on medi-cal, which would exempt most people from being impacted by the law.
In Pennsylvania in 2012 the appellate court upheld a judgment against a son was held responsible for $93,000 of his mother's nursing home bill. In a 2015 case two adult children were sued by the third who was paying to care for his mother and one settled out of court and the other was ordered to pay $400 a month toward his mother's support. Both cases are outlined here: Law can require children to pay support for aging parents | Marshall, Parker & Weber LLC
The "death panels" term was coined by religious fundamentalists who believe nobody, especially YOU, has the right to take your own life except God.
No. The term was coined by Americans who don't believe in the state determining the citizens' level of care.
Or did you forget Obama saying some people just need to be told "take an aspirin".
IE what's going on in England right now.
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