Re(2): Story ideas on important things Posted on October 24, 2023 at 01:58:02 PM by older and wiser
I've had enough health care connections to tell you that families and doctors... and in rare cases, judges, are the ones who withhold treatment.
Every health care entity that touches eldercare pushes for DNR's (Do not Rescuscitate Orders) and final wishes for people BEFORE the stroke out.
You must not have put any of your parents or spouses' parents in the ground yet. The issue isn't usually MEDICARE that pays health bills but MEDICAID, the state programs that pay for nursing home maintenance after elders have spent their savings down to virtually nothing. That's now well in excess of $3,000 a month. IT gets tricky when a husband goes to the nursing home but the wife is still living at home, which for most people is an asset that can't be sold out from under her. The issues that surround 'withholding' medical procedures or respirators have to do with the ethical question of 'whats their quality of life' and 'what are prospects for recovery.'
We don't see much of that on TV because of privacy regulations. I did a TV news series on CHildhood cancer back when more than half died. Its much better now, 20-30 years later, but some parents fight for every day above ground, and others 'take their kids home'. There are institutions everywhere, low key, whose patients are all on respirators. Ya just dont know about them.
We're kicking the eldercare can down the road in this country. Enlightened people don't delay death and while some religious groups are against letting people die, they don't seem to forgo their church building projects to give their funds to dying parishioners.
IT does seem absurd to believe in a hereafter to meet their Lord but yet spend every last dime plus their grandchildren's college fund to avoid meeting St Peter!
Your question and recognition of the issue is what this board should be about...but it's not. Less than a half dozen people would rather do internet bullying to entertain themselves.
I got out of reporting after corporate consolidations caused them to get rid of their investigative teams and just follow the cops around and just fill time between commercials as cheaply as possible. Real TV journalism, 60 Minutes style, is expensive and investors wont pay for that in each of their property markets. But in the 80s, they still did and I didn't got out of TV when their commitment left the bldg. Replies: