NY Times...a Good Piece?

[blv]

Re: NY Times...a Good Article???

Being an expert in stockpiling..my response
"rationing is nuts"

 

[DenverINS]

Re: NY Times...a Good Article???

This is an excellent piece about the choices we will have to make in order to provide affordable care. No matter how you look at it care will not be affordable except for the very rich in the future. Government run health care will be a disaster is it is implemented. Your tax bills will explode.

Will we have to ration care, and is it a good idea.

I like this article. Maybe instead of a government run rationed care program you can buy differing levels of insurance?

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/magazine/19healthcare-t.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

Some very interesting discussion can result from this.

How much do you think your health insurance company should pay to extend someone's life 6 months?

First we already have rationed health care by denying claims and pricing policies past affordability.

Also there is the issue of cost vs benefit that nobody will address. We need a cultural acceptance of death. Would you feel better if we spent a million dollars to treat a child with leukemia instead of a 95 year old needing a heart transplant? I can admit it.

 

[Winter_123]

Re: NY Times...a Good Article???

We need a cultural acceptance of death. Would you feel better if we spent a million dollars to treat a child with leukemia instead of a 95 year old needing a heart transplant? I can admit it.

I think that point has merit provided that the examples are extraordinary measures such as the heart transplant you mentioned. Otherwise, I don't think being elderly should preclude one from medical intervention and care.

Although things are changing, rural New Englanders, for example, are/were not whiners to go running to the doctor all the time. My grandmother lived to be 104 but never saw a doctor until she was in her 60's. I see guys all around my area in their 80's and 90's who have led healthy lives and are still out working on the farm. If it should turn out that a guy in his 90's needs colon cancer surgery then I think his needs are as valid as the woman who has cranked out her fifth crack baby, each of which cost the system several million by the time they are older.

 

[DenverINS]

Re: NY Times...a Good Article???

I think that point has merit provided that the examples are extraordinary measures such as the heart transplant you mentioned. Otherwise, I don't think being elderly should preclude one from medical intervention and care.

Although things are changing, rural New Englanders, for example, are/were not whiners to go running to the doctor all the time. My grandmother lived to be 104 but never saw a doctor until she was in her 60's. I see guys all around my area in their 80's and 90's who have led healthy lives and are still out working on the farm. If it should turn out that a guy in his 90's needs colon cancer surgery then I think his needs are as valid as the woman who has cranked out her fifth crack baby, each of which cost the system several million by the time they are older.

I come from an Iowa farming family. My grandfather raised cattle into his early 70's but he was smart enough to know that was inviting disaster. He was working in the fields until about 85. Farmers make us cityfolk look like wimps. He turns 96 this year and doing "well". Meaning he has about 15% of his vision, 5% of his hearing and is confined to a wheel chair.

While I have deep respect for him, I have no desire to see him become the next Terri Schiavo.

 

[Winter_123]

Re: NY Times...a Good Article???

While I have deep respect for him, I have no desire to see him become the next Terri Schiavo.

I have no quarrel with that. I do hope that society will continue to be able to distinquish between the normal downcurve and neediness that goes with being elderly versus a Terri Schiavo case. We are in trouble if we start denying health care to the elderly simply because they are past their prime and we are also in trouble if we dont know when a person is only being maintained by daily articificial means.

On a personal, note I have made two decisions in my life about when to end support services for a person and I am fully aware of the fact that this society is filled with examples of not enough care for the elderly and too much care for the elderly and the disabled. One person, my brother, was only 46. Hopefully families versus Obama's cost control commission can still play some role in those decisions.

 

[Expat]

Re: NY Times...a Good Article???

Judging by the way this administration operates, I would say that the elderly will have a much better chance of medical treatment and survival, if they are registered democrats. After all, you don't want to kill off your voting bloc.

 

[Winter_123]

Re: NY Times...a Good Article???

Judging by the way this administration operates, I would say that the elderly will have a much better chance of medical treatment and survival, if they are registered democrats. After all, you don't want to kill off your voting bloc.

Medicare will pay for 80% if you are 90 years old, fought in WWII to preserve the country, and paid into it since its inception and continue to pay your Part B premium.

Or, if you came across the border last night, the new plan will pay 100%.

 

[ginnajohns]

Re: NY Times...a Good Article???

yes it's really a nice article