Posted on 10/02/2010 1:40:54 PM PDT by wagglebee
Michael Kinsley thinks Baby Boomers are a failed generation. I agree. We have been the most self satisfied and smug generation in this nation’s history–with the least about which to be smug and self satisfied, unless self absorption is warrants such attitudes. But…
We should not, out of guilt, submit to health care rationing. But Michael Kinsley thinks we should–as sort of our form of World War II sacrifice that marked our parents’ generation. From the end of his current article in the Atlantic:
One final thought: as we learned during the health-care debate, citizens of other advanced countries live longer than Americans, while spending far less per person on health care. How can that be? Well, it’s partly that they don’t try to save people through heroic, expensive, long-shot efforts, most of which fail. You’ve seen the figures: for example, last year Medicare spent $50 billion on the last two months of life. Trouble is, we don’t know when we’re two months from the end. CBS’s 60 Minutes reported last year that “20 to 30 percent” of this $50 billion “may have had no meaningful impact.” Of course, all $50 billion had very little meaningful impact, if the patient died within two months. It’s easy enough to be in favor of not paying for treatments that do nothing. The tough decisions involve treatments that do something, but not much. Or treatments they’re not sure about.
Even putting costs aside, if you could choose at the beginning of your life which health-care system you’d prefer to live under, you’d pick the one where you’d probably live longer, no? Yes, that medical system involves “rationing,” but rationing already goes on here, more than we admit. Why not make it official? Let’s be honest: such a system would cost some Boomers their lives, but they would die in their 80s or 90s, unlike the teens and 20-somethings who gave their lives in World War II. Just a thought.
We have much for which to answer. But a quasi generational death penalty for us when we are most in need of care? I think not.
Michael "Pansy-Boy" Kinsley couldn't find any pink camo gear to go to Iraq.
It’s entirely possible I’ll have to take some killer docs with me ~ but it’d be better to snag them now rather than later ~ my health is better, and if they’re just all a bunch of psychopathic killers, best we get rid of them as soon as possible, right?!
Congressman Steve Cohen Discusses Healthcare Reform with Neil Cavuto - April 2, 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peJ6Dv696jQ&feature=related
Your theory is great, but “seniors” have been led to believe by our government that Medicare would be there for them. Most don’t have the resources to purchase the type of insurance you mention. Now consider that your typical 50 year old has paid into this fraud for 30 yrs already so he/she’s unlikely to start diverting significant funds to private insurance.
So the logical result is rationing and death panels.
How long will it be before gangster types get hired, be it by the government or third parties, to pull the plugs on everyone in the nursing home in order to be hailed as a hero for cutting costs when no one else would cut the cord?
I honestly don’t know that this is true, but I heard some “expert” say that if you examine life expectancy, other than lives lost through murder or car accidents, that America’s life expectancy is as high as any other country’s. I have no idea where you’d verify that, but it’s certainly food for thought.
A nation that murders its unborn babies will have no problem killing its senior citizens.
Yep.
That the Leftist solution to healthcare is to kill the sick so perfectly sums them up, little else can be said about them.
Except, as vile as these mass murderers are, what does that say about the vileness of the codependent useful idiot enabler liberals who vote for and defend them, while simultaneously sentencing their own family members to death?
Leftists are evil incarnate, drenched in blood and lies. But liberals crawl and whimper at evil’s feet, and wag their asses for a pat on the head as they sell their souls for their masters. The first group is enraging. The second... utterly disgusting.
Oy, I have a bad memory
If we were not supporting a massive underclass with illegals to boot, it would be there. But now, Medicare is subsidizing the women who breed like rabbits, illegals who come and breed like rabbits, and teenagers who are having one kid after another. And their children do the same thing, one generation after another. That’s were the liabilities are coming from. THAT is the root cause the social security benefits are such a mess and bankrupt. We have to start with a lot of tough love and simply start cutting people off who haven’t been paying in. It has to end because if not, either a lot of people are going to have to train as physicians to get the help they need, or people will have to live with rationed health care. A disaster in the making.
Yes. Wonder who will be the next after them? Middle class?
“Michael Kinsley and his friends should provide us with what the Democrats used to call “a demonstration project”.”
Along with Terri Schiavo, we might look at the entire ‘palliative care’ movement and Soros’ “Project on Death and Dying in America” as pilots.
“Wonder who will be the next after them?”
Uh....how about the politically incorrect?
You do have to ask yourself, at what point are heroic measures a waste ? In the end someone has to pay for it, one way or another. And if we all expect it then we’re all going to foot almost 100% of the bill.
A lot of boomers served in the Vietnam War without finding loop holes to keep them out.
” This “thought” represents the moral collapse of America. “
Fortunately, there is still much of the country that refuses to succomb to this.
I’m not sure where this fits into the larger discussion, but I’d like to share my mom’s story and see what you all think. Mama died last November, at the age of 78. Not a bad lifespan, to be sure, but about ten years less than either of her parents. She was a lifelong smoker, had had one very large abdominal aneurysm operated on in 2001 and another steadily growing in her chest at the time she died. She also had quite severe COPD. Mama had Medicare, of course, and she also paid for a very good supplemental plan, so a large part of her healthcare needs were covered, though not all. And because of stock market dips, she was by the start of 2009 living on her Social Security, with some help from me and my sister (which really meant our husbands).
After spending Feb-Apr of 2009 in the hospital, with me there daily and often nightly to help coordinate her care, we all realized that Mama could no longer live alone. She loved being independent, and my sister and I both lived five minutes from her house, but even with us visiting daily it wasn’t enough. She didn’t want and couldn’t afford in-home healthcare or a nursing home. And I was really happy about the idea of her living with us and spending as much time as possible with her only grandson. We had to move, find a place with a downstairs bedroom for her, and we accomplished it all within four months of her leaving the hospital.
But Mama really wasn’t happy. She wasn’t independent any more, didn’t want to cook or do any of the things she enjoyed. Her health was too bad to walk outside or play with her little dog. And she wasn’t supposed to smoke (although she could go onto her balcony if she liked). Mama was in and out of the hospital during Sept-Oct, and by the beginning of November she was in the hospital and didn’t want to be there ever again. Despite her primary care doctor’s opinion (we had a lovely team of doctors, who really tried their best in every way), she decided she wanted to try palliative care. That doctor was also wonderful and met extensively with my mother and with me and my sister. But none of us (with the exception, I’m almost certain, of my mother) was prepared for the fact that my mother required an extreme amount of morphine and a 24/7 nurse in order to be at home. She lived for three days once we returned home, completely sedated the whole time, and died peacefully.
But I find I have so many unanswered questions and such mixed feelings about the whole experience. Was this a “good” death? Did we do everything we could? In all truth, Mama was talking to me about “letting her go” for months; but my whole focus was just on keeping her comfortable.
Has any of you all faced this kind of situation? How would this be different with the changes going into effect? If you were in my mother’s situation, what would you want to do?
I feel so sad about all of this.
Laura
The rich and skinny. ;>)
Laura, you did the absolute BEST for your Mom by taking her into your home to spend her final days with family. I work with the elderly and terminally ill and that scenario is what most want, but don’t always get. No matter how much you do, there is always doubt about one’s actions, but please rest easy in your mind. There comes a time when all patients stop fighting to live, knowing that nature must take it’s course and clearly your Mom was aware of this. As to how the changes in healthcare will affect us, I don’t know for sure, but I imagine that palliative/hospice care will become more common. If it were me, I would want to be at home, among familiar people and objects where I felt comfortable. I am sure your Mother felt the same. God Bless.
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