Posted on 05/06/2008 7:51:17 AM PDT by Sam's Army
Plan for long life, without pandemic NANCY STANCILL Should doctors let people older than 85 die in a flu pandemic?
A Monday news story saying a U.S. task force recommends denying lifesaving care in a pandemic or other disaster to some folks -- including healthy people above 85 -- was unsettling.
They're talking about my mother, soon to be 86. My friend Karen's father, who is 92. Another friend's grandmother, 102.
These people live life joyfully, with their minds and hearts intact. My mother relishes foreign travel. Karen's father loves bird watching. The 102-year-old grandmother plays a mean hand of bridge.
Financial planners, who routinely urge clients to base their planning on living to 95 or more, were aghast when I told them the news.
"I hope that none of my clients ever have people who want to make that decision for them," said Paul Boggs, a certified financial planner with R.P. Boggs and Co. in Lake Wylie, S.C. "That doesn't sit easy with me."
He said he has clients who are active in their 90s, including a few who still work daily at their companies.
Diane Davis, a certified financial planner in Charlotte, said she is amazed at such a recommendation, given that medical advances are increasing longevity all the time.
"A lot of us baby boomers would have an issue with that," she said.
It seems counterintuitive that the task force, influential physicians from universities, medical groups and government, would recommend letting people over 85 die in a flu pandemic.
The proposed guidelines are designed to be a blueprint "so that everybody will be thinking in the same way" in a disaster, Asha Devereaux, a critical care physician from San Diego and lead writer of the report, told the Associated Press.
Task force members said the idea is to allocate scarce resources, such as ventilators, medicine and doctors and nurses, in a uniform way. In addition to those over 85, the guidelines would cut out people with severe chronic disease and mental impairment.
Eighty-five doesn't seem so old anymore, especially when today's young folks have a heightened chance of living to 100.
The United States has about 54,000 centenarians, a number that has risen steadily over the last decade. One longevity expert predicts as many as 840,000 centenarians in 2050.
Cindy Anderson, a certified financial planner with Anderson Financial Planning in Charlotte, said she uses the age of 99 when mapping out strategies for folks in their 50s and 60s.
"My software won't go any higher," she said. "I have clients whose parents are dying in their 90s. I'd rather the clients die with money than without."
That got me thinking about money. If you have enough of it, it's an antidote to the loss of power people often experience in old age. And that got me thinking about saving.
So what's the trick to making money last into your 90s or beyond?
Don't withdraw more than 4 percent yearly from your savings after you retire, all three planners said.
"If you start hitting your principal early, that's a tough situation," said Boggs.
Other advice:
• Buy good supplemental health insurance. Don't rely solely on Medicare as you age.
• Get a financial checkup each year after you retire, so you can apply the brakes if you're spending too much of your nest egg.
• If you can afford it, buy long-term care insurance in your 40s or 50s. You may never need it, but if you do, you'll have the resources to avoid poor-quality care.
• Plan for inflation in some areas, such as utilities, taxes and food. But planners also note that some expenses, such as travel and entertainment, may decline in your 90s.
"As clients get older, they spend money in different ways," said Anderson. "They often stop spending a lot of money on shopping and the symphony."
Nancy Stancill's On the Money appears in the Observer Sundays and Tuesdays. Reach her at 704-358-5066 or at nstancill@charlotteObserver.com
ON THE MONEY
Disaster care report A task force charged with looking at health care in a flu pandemic or other disaster says lifesaving care may need to be rationed.
The task force's recommendations for who would not get treatment include:
• People older than 85.
• Those with severe trauma, which could include critical injuries from car crashes and shootings.
• Severely burned patients older than 60.
• Those with severe mental impairment, which could include advanced Alzheimer's disease.
• Those with a severe chronic disease, such as advanced heart failure, lung disease or poorly controlled diabetes.
1) No, but you helped to further the baseless notion that it very well could be a conspiracy without any evidence that it is by linking it to liberal notions when political ideology doesn’t have much to do with this plan at all.....it’s a task force of physicians making this plan, not a specific government agency and not “booga booga” libs.
2) Anything in the past is irrelevant to the current plan. This is either a good thing or a bad thing on its own merits regardless of anything that has happened in the past.
3) As an infectious diseases expert myself (PhD Immunology of Infectious Diseases) that has worked with a State agency for emergency planning purposes (mostly bioterrorism), yes....we need national and local plans such as this in the event of massive pandemics coupled with shortages of resources.....to maximize the lives saved with a shortage of resources.
It’s good to have a plan in place that includes civilian doctors and government agencies....as the government is the ones that’re going to be dealing with supplies, quarantines, riots, etc...
Or we could just fly by the seat of our pants without planning anything.
Yeah. those bureaucrats do have to eat, don't they?
Yeah. those bureaucrats do have to eat, don't they?
I'm just a few months shy of that magical age of uselessness you all are so facinated with, and I really love to hear what the opinion of the "me first" generation is of us. It's kinda funny.
PS: By the way, I never pushed a baby out of line in my life — and I don’t know anyone who has.
Please don’t take my comments as saying you’re useless...you’re clearly not...but you don’t need to hear that from me. My response was to a comment that most 85+ people would be willing to sacrifice for others...and that ain’t my experience at all.
When I hear about the “me first generation,” I always wonder, “who raised the me first generation to feel and act the way that they feel and act?”
It’s kinda funny.
It’s a metaphor.
The stamp sponge I could go along with -- but the government is already using me for that purpose without making it convenient for every dog in town to do the same to my memorial.
Pray tell, what is an ElectricStrawberry — and does one get electricuted if he/she eats one???
Then, that being so, I imagine anyone trying to eat it [the 25th, that is]would get more of a shock than from the average electricution.
yeah, wish I could take it back. But calling an age for death “triage” is stupid-you basketball!
Again...very mature. I guess you expected that to make me feel inferior to you? You didn't accomplish your goal.
Ok, I’m sorry - you ladder!
Oh OUCH. That hurt!
NOT!
Keep it up, you’re just making yourself look bad. Your credibility is at risk here discipler...
Hey Trussell,
Get a life.
Back to the issue. Do you think designating a cut off age for medical care is just like stand triage?
I have a life...one that I am very happy with, thank you.
I don’t know what the process of “Stand triage” is, so I couldn’t honestly say.
Designating a cut off age for medical care is not something I would be willing to support. Many people older than the suggested age are still very active and have lots they can still contribute to society.
Thanks for the encouragement you have given.
Sure, the concept of triage is nothing new, but basing it solely on a birthdate is different from the sort of trauma triage which most ER personnel are familliar with.
H5N1, not unlike the Spanish Flu, seems to disproportionately affect the young, and apparently, through overstimulating the immune system (Cytokine Storm) causes irrecoverable pulmonary damage.
Ironically, the elderly are not generally in the age group most susceptible to this desease, but those in the prime of life, whose immune systems are generally stronger.
Please notify me of any redundant or unwanted pings. I try to keep the list up to date, but work back and forth between several computers and may not have the latest version on this one.
Thanks for the ping.
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