Death Panels & Such

[livinitup]

As a spin off to the War on Youth -

If children knew they were on the hook for their parent's residential care, wouldn't we see lots of kids NOT place their parents in residential care?

Either by choice or by apathy, I can see lots of elders left to die in pretty poor conditions. I had to fight for a YEAR to get my grandmother into a good Alhzeimer unit when she needed it. My #1 consern was that she was in danger of wandering off and getting lost in her former neighborhood (of 20 years). If I didn't make that happen, she would have been left without anyone to notice.

So, are we looking at killing off our elderly rather than expensive care for them?

[2vermont]

Jun 26, 2012 12:08:19 GMT -5 livinitup said:

As a spin off to the War on Youth -

If children knew they were on the hook for their parent's residential care, wouldn't we see lots of kids NOT place their parents in residential care?

Either by choice or by apathy, I can see lots of elders left to die in pretty poor conditions. I had to fight for a YEAR to get my grandmother into a good Alhzeimer unit when she needed it. My #1 consern was that she was in danger of wandering off and getting lost in her former neighborhood (of 20 years). If I didn't make that happen, she would have been left without anyone to notice.

So, are we looking at killing off our elderly rather than expensive care for them?

I was half joking with my assisted suicide post in that thread. I do wonder whether this could lead to these sorts of things. At the very least, if a parent knows that their children will be held responsible (and can't afford it) they may be more willing to commit suicide to reduce that burden or potentially remove it altogether. As a society, we may be more willing to allow the legalization of physician assisted suicide because of the impending costs of keeping the elderly alive.

I also wonder whether some facilities/hospitals already move things along quicker to keep costs down. As this gets worse and as children expected to pay these costs, children may be willing to end care sooner.

[Deleted]

both of grandmothers had a massive stroke that thye never woke up from. the one that had assets' life was not prolonged. She didn't wake up one morning. She was taken to the hospital. They doctor's said she'd never wake up. She was moved to the hospice floor and she died a week later.

My other grandmother had a similar stroke. She was in a nursing home at the time and on medicaid. The hospital incubated her and she was on life support. (WTF putting a 95 year old who has had a massive stroke on life support). She was kept in a hospital bed for about a week too. My aunt refused to let them remove her breathing tube. My sisters and I were distraught looking at her being forced to breath. Finally my aunt agreed to remove the breathing tube. My grandmother died in minutes. Why was she kept alive? My aunt wasn't out any money and more importantly probably the hospital got to bill medicaid.

[ttt]

When my grandmother was in her last days, she had been hospitalized for a month or so. Everyone knew the end was near, so she wanted to come home (she absolutely hated the hospital). The hospital told her that it was against medical advice to leave, and that if she left, we would be responsible for the entire bill of her stay and none of it would be covered under Medicare.

How does this help anyone?? Except obviously the (for profit, incidentally) hospital, which gets to continue billing.