Topic: Human Rights
"LET'S FIX MEDICARE" This is an appeal to the Greatest Generation, their family or their friends. Please help.by Mavis Mathews
(conservative libertarian)
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
"LET'S FIX MEDICARE"
An Appeal to the Greatest Generation
Medicare is broken, and somebody's got to fix it. We could take that to mean that we have one last job to do.
We've blazed a few trails in our lifetimes, fought a war or two, pledged allegiance to a flag we were willing to die for, felt patriotism so deeply that America was what we believed in in 1942. We're the guys and girls who offered up our lives and served with pride to save America from invasion of our shores, who saluted our flag with reverence, and sang, "God Bless America" and "Coming in on a Wing and a Prayer," never questioning that we would come out victors in the end. We don't just talk about it; we make it happen.
Let's take on Medicare and save it for future generations. Let's do it with the courage and determination that we're known to possess. Let's do it knowing that we are, after all, the most learned and the most experienced citizens alive. And we are, uniquely, in a position to actually change the statistics that are driving Medicare into the ground. For us, no challenge could be more powerful than this one: what can we do for our kids? It's in our genes.
Saving Medicare is, in a way, our responsibility because we are also the generation who produced that massive generation of baby boomers (43,000,000, is it?) in the first place. Those numbers, along with our own history making longevity, is what now threatens the survival of Medicare for future generations. Let's make this our Last Hurrah. Let's fix Medicare.
Here's a shocking statistic as to why we should take this on. More than ten years ago I heard this statistic from a Roberta Green who was the director of the Agency on Aging in Ukiah, California at the time. She reported that ninety percent of all medical insurance claims are paid out in the last year of life. Stated another way that means that ninety percent of all insurance money is spent trying to keep people alive up until they die anyway--ninety percent! And who's responsible for that? We are.
Since the vast majority of people who die in any given year are those over seventy, we are the ones who can actually change that statistic. It's not the doctor. Not the hospital. Not the family. It's the patient who saw the doctor, went to the hospital, told the family. It's the patient who lets the doctor or the hospital or family members prevent them from dying when their time has come.
That's what makes it our responsibility. We seem to be the "responsibility generation." And this time there are some simple solutions. We are the only ones who can solve this. We, the senior, senior citizens of America, have the opportunity to fix Medicare.
The quickest solution takes only a few minutes and doesn't cost anything. It does take a little courage, unless you choose to look upon taking this step as simply agreeing to cooperate with nature. I mean, we are going to die.
In California there are forms called a "Do Not Resuscitate" and a "Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care Decisions." They are available at any hospital. Surely they are available in every state and should be honored by any medical professional. But they will be honored only when everybody knows for sure what your wishes are. The medical profession is dedicated to saving lives at all costs. They don't want to hear that you no longer want their help. Tell them anyway.
If you have internet access you can go to www.legalhelpmate.com to find the forms and actually print them out right there. Later, you'll need witnesses to your desires. A medic alert medallion is recommended, something you wear on your wrist or around your neck identifying you as someone who wants to go when your body is ready to go. As someone who objects to being kept alive beyond that point.
Taking care of this simple matter, while you're well, is an infallible way to greatly reduce that disproportionate final expenditure that is killing Medicare. It's that unbelievable nine out of every ten insurance dollars, being spent to postpone death--for a little while. We can start to turn those numbers around by just signing our name.
Future generations of Americans can continue to have the benefits of a healthy, health insurance program. It's the promise of Medicare that takes the pressure off of growing older. Medicare is a primary asset that brings comfort and relief and promise to living beyond our working years. We cannot just stand by and let it die.
Every living person has the opportunity to make peace with death, to make the decision to sign those end of life papers, and to agree to release the body when it's ready to go. This will be the most personal of decisions. It will be based upon the individual's concept of an afterlife.
Having made that decision, regardless of age, we and our loved ones have the right to refuse painful examinations, X-rays, tests, or procedures, in addition to refusing any artificial means of prolonging life.
Keeping a physical vehicle alive, after it has served its purpose i.e. lost its independence, its dignity, or its usefulness, is cruel and inhumane. Let's decide to move on when the time comes like a diseased tree or a treasured rose picked from your garden. Let's seal our reputation as The Greatest Generation by making this one last contribution--saving Medicare for those we are leaving behind.
Mavis Mathews is an active Realtor, a writer, and author of "Getting Lucky at Eighty" an autobiography. She lives on the Northern California coast.
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The views expressed in this
article are those of Mavis Mathews only and do not represent
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employee or otherwise affiliated with Nolan Chart, LLC in his/her role as a columnist.
"She reported that ninety percent of all medical insurance claims are paid out in the last year of life."
I'm not sure I agree with that statement. This source suggests a somewhat different conclusion. [link edited for length]
In any event I think people should be able to pick whatever end-of-life arrangements they want including what you suggest, plus hospice, plus the Kervorkian option for those who want it.
Nursing home care is a huge expense as shown in this report [link edited for length] But how many people would choose to spend their final years in a nursing home? Those are some of the most depressing places in the country. I think many people would rather check out early via a dose of hemlock, but that option is denied to them.
Posted By: Walt Thiessen
Date: 2009-05-30 06:58:24
While I respect those who choose to file "do not resuscitate" orders with their doctors, let's not pretend that if more people file such orders it will somehow "fix" Medicare. It will not. The Medicare problem comes from the idea that elderly people are entitled to "supplemental" medical care, which has transitioned over time into "total" medical care, all at the expense of taxpayers. That is an insupportable policy that cannot be sustained forever. It must eventually blow up, as it will.
Further, if the government gets wind of this approach you suggest, they will likely try to make such filings mandatory in certain cases. Thus, government will end up picking and choosing which elderly shall get medical treatment, and which elderly shall not.
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