8 Responses

1. Who decides on payment for the medical care? If the person doesn’t have insurance, or the care goes beyond “customary and reasonable”, who gets the bill? Who decides whether to force the family to sell the house to pay for “heroic” (and often futile) end of life care?

   One should always remembers that health care providers make money primarily for live but sick patients. The more care they give, the more money they make.

2. akuperma, the government is getting involved in killing people. But, you are not aware of the halacha and always perform an exercise in historical revisionism so whatever I say doesn’t make a difference anyway as long as you can maintain control over the Jewish electoral base of the Democrat party.

   I am imploring each and everyone of my fellow Jewish bloggers here on YWN to go to Sean Hannity’s website and check to see what the latest is on your particular congressman’s vote concerning healthcare. We are in desperate need of people who are willing to barnstorm their respective congressman because if you think this is bad, you have seen nothing yet when it comes to socialized medicine. I have done so.

3. “two doctors must independently conclude the patient won’t survive for six months even with medical treatment.”

   A very close relative of mine was told, without a doubt, the very most he could hope for would be to live another 6 months, even with maximal treatment. He stopped all treatment at that time. That was 5 years ago.
   A very similar story occurred to my neighbor.

   This is not at all an unusual occurrence. Most people reading this have likely experienced or heard of similar situations.

4. I forgot a very important part of the story:

   “That was 5 years ago.” He is still alive, condition only slightly worse than 5 years ago.

5. #1 is right.
   Many years ago the reported on a cure for Alzheimers.
   Not only did it stop the disease cold, it also reversed it.

   They stopped the testing because they said at the time it caused brain inflammation.

   However the inflammation eventually stopped and the brain was back to normal and the Alzheimers was gone.

   I believe the real reasons they stopped the testing and why this cure has not seen the light of day since then, is that they were concerned over some law suit crazy fool who would try and take them for everything he could get by complaining about the inflammation (which I believe was the cure in progress like would that swells up and then eventually subsides as new skin grows under a burn.).

   Another reason is that teh hospital industry makes billions per year from all those poor suffering souls laying day after day in those expensive beds where the hospital does not need to do much to collect many thousands of dollars per month (hospitals can change thousands per bed per day).

   Imagine if all of them were cured and no one would ever again need to lay around for years suffering from this horrid disease.

   The hospital indistry could never recoup their losses.

6. Sorry “which I believe was the cure in progress like would that swells up and then eventually subsides as new skin grows under a burn.).”
   should have been “Which I believe was the cure in progress, much like a wound, that swells up and then eventually subsides, as new skin grows under a burn.).

7. It is imperative that those who hold strong values ahout the sanctity of life see to it that they designate a health care proxy, ie an individual to make any and all health care decisions in case they are incapable of doing so.

   The mindset of many doctors and nurses today is that a person with what they deem a poor ‘quality of life’ should have his/ her life shortened by ‘withdrawal of care’ (eg pulling the plug).

   The new law will make it much easier for a relative to act against the true interests of an obsrvant patient.

   Leon Zacharowicz MD
   http://www.linkedin.com/doctorzach
   twitter DrLZ

8. Oh, please. This really has little to do with the money,NOTHING to do with “the government killing people, and everyone can tell a story of someone who lived despite a dire prognosis.
   Every day, hospitals are required to provide care for people that really have no realistic chance of survival but don’t have the paperwork signed (and the Alzheimer’s story is simply not true). Families agonize watching their loved ones suffer for lack of paperwork. This has more to do with hospital liability than making money (hospitals frequently don’t get good reimbursement for these patients).
   Lesson: talk to your Rav, talk to your family, get a Living Will and a Durable Power of Attorney, and things will go better for everyone.