You misunderstand. I’m in NO way against the spending of Medicare dollars for necessary procedures/medications for ANY patient, regardless of their age; be they 1 hour or 101 years old.
What I DO have a problem with is the elderly, in poor health, with terminal conditions, spending MY tax dollars to buy another week or month - usually miserably - and ultimately fruitlessly. I see it ALL the time.
If you are paying out of pocket for your care... knock yourself out. If you are expecting the taxpayers to pick up the tab there MUST be some reasonable limits.
The critical point I make is this. You have NO way of knowing just how much longer that 80yr old will live if they have a particular procedure.
None.
Deny it and they will most assuredly die very soon.
With the procedure they may live another 15 years.
Who makes these decisions and who is to know?
It isn’t ‘fruitless’ until it, unfortunately, is.
Most people would have written my EIGHTY YEAR OLD grandfather with kidney failure off. he was EIGHTY. Good grief, how much longer does he have anyways? Ultimately he had a dozen years.
Eventually his kidneys failed again. He refused dialysis this time. Dialysis isn’t for the faint of heart. At 90+ he just didn’t have it in him and requested hospice instead. He passed by a picture of my grandmother the day he found out and said ‘I’m coming to see you real soon!’. Nobody questioned his decision. Especially his doctors.
Locally, a heart clinic is ALREADY telling their patients over 70 that there’s nothing that can be done for them. Regardless of the medical problem.
And, like I said in a followup, MOST of the patients in his dialysis were middle aged and grossly obese.
No matter your criteria, sooner or later actually spending money on anyone’s medical condition will be ‘too much to pay’.
For the record I don’t believe in any insurance. Even private. Private socialization of risk (ie, private insurance) ALWAYS, ALWAYS leads to public socialization of risk (the NHS, Canadian single payer, etc). Because, all together now...’it’s not FAAAAAAIRRRRR’.