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The article says little about any of it. Neighbors said the wife had advanced Alzheimers.
In the best of circumstances, many know very little about their options for Alzheimer patients.
In a little town like Ferndale - that's not even close to "best" of circumstances. I'm not even sure that town has a Doctor - found several Dentists and an Acupuncturist, but no Medical Doctor.
I got included in the 'lack of empathy' list, too.
However, in my late 70's and if you'll read treads about this on the Retirement board, you'll find many that declare that if the future is that bleak, health wise, many say they'd rather end their lives.
Whether they actually would is another question but I do know people that have done so.
I sincerely doubt that I could but I've most certainly kept it in mind so maybe I could. You get to a certain age or level of disability and under certain circumstances, a couple of years of life just isn't that precious anymore.
This happened in my state, so let me weigh in on a few things:
-We have the 6th highest premiums and out of pocket maximums in the 50 states, even more than California.
-The state has a "cannot refuse medical services for inability to pay" law, and it forces hospitals to eat the costs treating illegals, homeless druggie overdoses, and the like. I'm not arguing that these people should or shouldn't get treatment, not in this post, but the hospital and the ensured shouldn't have to eat the bill either.
-The state subsidized medical plans "short-pay" the hospitals and doctors, and the patients have no copays or out of pocket maximums. This forces the hospital to recover the shortage by over-billing the insured...many doctors and nurses will be candid and tell you this right up front.
- My grandparents have/had supplemental insurance to go along with Medicare and they have virtually no out of pocket expenses. The bills for my grandfathers fight with cancer were well over 7 figures and without it, out of pocket expenses might have broke them. A friend of my bosses wife is a medical accountant and has relayed some horror stories with how they had to lien homes to recover money from those with no or inadequate insurance. A nearly retired couple was forced to sell their home to pay off the lien, and was subsequently priced out of the home market and unable to retire.
-I am paying more out of pocket today *with insurance* for the same procedures I paid cash for 10 years ago when I had *no insurance*, as a sole-proprietor of a small business. Next to housing and taxes, it's mine and my employers largest expense, even more than my monthly grocery budget.
This happened in my state, so let me weigh in on a few things:
-We have the 6th highest premiums and out of pocket maximums in the 50 states, even more than California.
-The state has a "cannot refuse medical services for inability to pay" law, and it forces hospitals to eat the costs treating illegals, homeless druggie overdoses, and the like. I'm not arguing that these people should or shouldn't get treatment, not in this post, but the hospital and the ensured shouldn't have to eat the bill either.
-The state subsidized medical plans "short-pay" the hospitals and doctors, and the patients have no copays or out of pocket maximums. This forces the hospital to recover the shortage by over-billing the insured...many doctors and nurses will be candid and tell you this right up front.
- My grandparents have/had supplemental insurance to go along with Medicare and they have virtually no out of pocket expenses. The bills for my grandfathers fight with cancer were well over 7 figures and without it, out of pocket expenses might have broke them. A friend of my bosses wife is a medical accountant and has relayed some horror stories with how they had to lien homes to recover money from those with no or inadequate insurance. A nearly retired couple was forced to sell their home to pay off the lien, and was subsequently priced out of the home market and unable to retire.
-I am paying more out of pocket today *with insurance* for the same procedures I paid cash for 10 years ago when I had *no insurance*, as a sole-proprietor of a small business. Next to housing and taxes, it's mine and my employers largest expense, even more than my monthly grocery budget.
Healthcare is truly broken.
Healthcare is truly broken in the most privatized healthcare system in the world. But I assume that you believe we should do more of the opposite of what the rest of the world does when it comes to health care? So more privatization of health care and treat it like buying a car or clothes?
What a tragedy on so many levels. An elderly husband and wife died in an apparent murder-suicide in Washington state on August 7th. A 77-year-old man called 911 on Wednesday morning saying he planned to die by suicide. Despite attempts by crisis negotiators to stop it, the couple went through with it. Deputies found several notes throughout the home in which the couple expressed despair over high medical bills. If the couple couldn't afford their current medical bills, they would not have been able to afford psychiatric care also. I'm sure other factors contributed to their demise, but financial stresses certainly didn't help.
And it's only going to get worse, as there is a push from the Demolib leadership to insure illegals who've never paid into the system and probably won't for a very long time.
The only way you can be consistent in this statement is to call for the immediate abolishment of forced collectivism which requires things like health care to be maintained & regulated by an involuntary 3rd party (in the form of government).
I'm pretty sure...actually I'm positive...you aren't going to make that leap.
I have always stated to pay for your own stuff whether healthcare, food or otherwise. Their problems are not my problems.
How do you know what they planned or didn't plan? Maybe a catastrophic illness wiped them out? Maybe they were in the stock market trying to plan for the future, but got wiped out during the recession. You have no idea what they planned or didn't plan for. It's not all cut and dried like you think it is.
Life is unfair. Their bad luck should not be my financial responsibility.
If the spouse that died first agreed to be killed that is not murder.
The distinction is homocide vs. murder. Homocide is the fact that a person's life has been taken by another. It applies to murder but also other situations where a person is killed by anotehr such as killing someone in self defense. You are right - murder is a legal conclusion in which the homocide was determined to be a crime, a wrongful homocide.
But this is a tragic story and I agree we are likely to hear more of it. I don't know what my mother would do if it weren't for my sister being able to help her with things she can't do herself anymore or me helping to subsidize her care home. Her needs are too great for her to live with one of us, and her home isn't cheap. We're hoping she doesn't get to needing a higher level of care - not sure how we'll fund that.
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