Thursday, September 03, 2009

"It's really distressing...these things need to be addressed"

Ninety percent of people in La Crosse, Wisconsin have advance directives. Alec MacGillis writes in the Washington Post:.

The town's biggest hospital, Gundersen Lutheran, has long been a pioneer in ensuring that the care provided to patients in their final months complies with their wishes. More recently, it has taken the lead in seeking to have Medicare compensate physicians for advising patients on end-of-life planning.

The hospital got its wish this spring when House Democrats inserted that provision into their health-care reform bill -- only to see former Alaska governor Sarah Palin seize on it as she warned about "death panels" that would deny care to the elderly and the disabled. Despite widespread debunking, those warnings have led lawmakers to say they will drop the provision.

"It's really distressing," hospital official Bud Hammes said. "These things need to be addressed."


The way certain politicians have preyed upon people's fear of death is just infuriating.

[Full disclosure note: my dad practiced cardiology at Gundersen for many years].

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

People are wary of the conflict of interest. It costs Medicare lots of money to keep people with expensive conditions alive. People are aware that it would be much cheaper for Medicare to just euthanize them.

This wariness is not entirely unfounded. Holland has had de facto involuntary euthanasia for years, which saves its state run hospital system lots of resources. Some elderly carry cards asking the hospital not to kill them.

http://www.euthanasia.cc/dutch.html

Anonymous said...

............♥
...........****
..........******
.........********
........**********
......*************
.....*****HAPPY***
....*****************
...*******************
..*********************
...........****
...........****
...........****
Day, doing nothing is the life of the consumers; positive pay, is the creator of life. Nothing to do, that is, had an empty life; If people continue to pay the interest, that is, good life.
www.hoard.com.tw
www.hoard.com.tw/default.php
www.hoard.com.tw/product_08.html
www.hoard.com.tw/about_us2.html
www.hoard.com.tw/chocolate.htm
www.ta89.com
www.ta89.com/about
www.ta89.com/index.htm
www.ta-520.com

Anonymous said...

............♥
...........****
..........******
.........********
........**********
......*************
.....*****HAPPY***
....*****************
...*******************
..*********************
...........****
...........****
...........****
Day, doing nothing is the life of the consumers; positive pay, is the creator of life. Nothing to do, that is, had an empty life; If people continue to pay the interest, that is, good life.
www.hoard.com.tw
www.hoard.com.tw/default.php
www.hoard.com.tw/product_08.html
www.hoard.com.tw/about_us2.html
www.hoard.com.tw/chocolate.htm
www.ta89.com
www.ta89.com/about
www.ta89.com/index.htm
www.ta-520.com

poker said...

This wariness is not entirely unfounded. Holland has had de facto involuntary euthanasia for years, which saves its state run hospital system lots of resources. Some elderly carry cards asking the hospital not to kill them.