Rich_by_the_Bay
Moderator Emeritus
Scott Burns on backing off the amount of medical care you want to receive after age 75.
Food for thought.
Food for thought.
You can as long as you stay in your bed. Problem is, once you leave it and go to a hospital, other people make decisions based on their priorities, and they may not give you the option to pass.But if all it's going to buy is a few more months in bed gasping for air, I'd pass.
You can as long as you stay in your bed. Problem is, once you leave it and go to a hospital, other people make decisions based on their priorities, and they may not give you the option to pass.
As he sees it, he will have accomplished most, or all, of what he hopes to do in life by age 75. His children will be married. His grandchildren will have been born. All that would remain is the long downhill trip that we call old age. He would choose to avoid it.
If insurance quits paying for dialysis, BP meds, hip, knee and heart surgery, cancer and other routine but expensive care for people after 75, it would free up a lot of resources to go to people that are still productive (or at least younger)
one can only hope they'll honor the wishes.
That sounds like a situation where a letter from a lawyer is in order. Citing the relevant parts of state law. That letter will go to the general counsel to the hospital which may make a difference.This is the crux of the matter.
When my dad went in the hospital for his terminal stay I gave them a notarized copy of his advance directive, which they ignored.
"How could you do that when his advance directive specifically said he didn't want it?" I asked.
"We don't accept those" said the chief resident. The poor guy had to live through about four extra months of misery as a result.
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
I hope the insurance plans mandate some sort of alternative care if they go this route. You really don't want to be telling the grandkids "Grandpa turned 75 today. He's going to be living on a farm upstate where he can run and play."
That sounds like a situation where a letter from a lawyer is in order. Citing the relevant parts of state law. That letter will go to the general counsel to the hospital which may make a difference.
It is absurd, but I assume the author/editors very deliberately chose a provocative age/title that would get people's attention to sell more magazines and generate more readers - journalism 101, and it seems it worked.Setting the number of years at 75 (or any number) seems kind of absurd to me; there are 85 year olds that have never been sick, get a lot out of life, and have a lot to give and 55 year olds that are consuming healthcare resources at a rate of a million a year and are just suffering. It would seem more logical to project quality of life and medical expenses, then make a go / no-go decision on that.
It is almost a given it will happen at some point. Euthanasia is legal and practiced in other countries. It may start like this "Gramps, why not just take these pills so you can pass on your assets to us"
At least if you are in the 'right' state, you can smoke medical marijuana to help...
I am 77, and these have been the best years of my life. I remarried after my wife of 30 years passed away, and we have traveled a lot of the world together.
I fly for Angel flight and Pilots & Paws, volunteer on a tourist train, prepare taxes for low income people, and do data entry and data reduction for a local food bank. I also counsel widows and widowers on a grief recovery website.
"Come grow old with me, the best is yet to be"