Posted on 03/10/2009 9:59:02 AM PDT by Abathar
Treatment Costs Higher Than For Whites
CHICAGO -- Striking new research shows dying blacks and Hispanics have much steeper treatment costs than whites, sobering evidence that racial health-care differences continue right up until death.
It's not that minorities are being charged more than whites. It's that they tend to get more costly, intensive treatments including feeding tubes and other invasive medical procedures near death. That's in sharp contrast with what often happens throughout their lives, when minorities are less likely than whites to get aggressive medical care.
The results raise a troubling question about whether medical resources for nonwhite patients are "misallocated over a lifetime," with minorities receiving more treatment at the end, when there is little chance of improving or extending life, the study authors said.
The study appears in Monday's Archives of Internal Medicine. It involved nearly 160,000 Medicare patients and records on their treatment in the last six months of life.
(Excerpt) Read more at theindychannel.com ...
Everybody dies.
Minorities and women to suffer most.
HA! That will open up a nice fat can of worms now won't it??
(Being white and overweight by the government standards I am just waiting for the day I get fined too...)
Now wait a minute! Feeding tubes are only used at the behest of the patient. Both my mother and mother-in-law refused feeding tubes and signed living wills stating that fact.
_____________
And maybe that’s the difference. Maybe blacks and Hispanics are less likely to have living wills, or their families are more likely to say do everything. Maybe since they die younger, doctors try harder. Maybe they are more likely to die of expensive lingering diseases - kidney failure and heart disease as opposed to just heart disease.
You know for a fact, from past experience, that chances are better than 50-50 that the family will likely sue no matter what you do. The extra measures are just insurance against huge cash awards.
Let them take care of themselves, or call an 0bamulance.
I don’t get it...shouldn’t women be hit hardest too?
I think they are saying whites are stronger, tougher, and smarter than other races.
Like many, I would accept most of what is reported in that study as factual, but I would suggest that the conclusions drawn from it are dubious, at best. For example, only the costs of hospital “end of life” care are calculated, but actually everybody dies somewhere, somehow, and not necessarily in a hospital in a city where the costs are likely to be the highest. Many people choose not to embark on the end of life journey in the hospital, they may opt to follow the hospice route, or simply decline treatment and let things run their inevitable course. In addition, absent an advance directive, a medical power of attorney, or some such document, once the person is in the ambulance after 911 has been called, they are going to be kept alive by every means known to medicine, because nobody has the official status to say otherwise, and the person is likely to be under medication and would not be considered competent to make a judgment for themself. I fault the press for reporting this study so shallowly, particularly when a more thorough analysis could be very educational for the general public. The fact that it appears to pit black against white, however, trumps any modicum of journalistic common sense, and reinforces the widely held belief that journalism comes so close to rhyming with urinalism for a reason.
Is this article a parody? Or satire?
If they are treated more aggresively than whites -- It's racist.
sigh.
It is probably past experience with the medical system.
If you have never seen anyone withering away on life support, you are more likely to say do anything to keep grandma alive.
I work in the medical field, I have no interest in being kept alive for an extra week hooked up to machines. I know that when you reach the end, the machines are not going to bring you back. Someone with less experience may believe there is still hope as long as your heart is beating.
I don’t have any numbers but I frequently see advanced medical directives with elderly white people, rarely with blacks and hispanics. That could also be related to access to legal services also.
I had power of attorney for my mother and did not wish to prolong a vegetative state. But I can understand people who’d do anything to keep that spark of life going for another hour or day or week.
I’ve told my kids I’m not interested in being kept alive on machines, but need to put that in writing. I understand that hospitals frequently override DNR orders, probably for fear of being sued.
Sounds accurate.
Hospitals rarely override a cogent written DNR order. They can be sued for malpractice and criminally charged with assault and battery for ignoring a written DNR. They also can also be hit with triple damages for an intentional tort.
A hospital will deal with your written DNR very seriously.
I’ve told my wife and kids: “It’s not the quantity of life I live, but the quality that matters. If I’m hooked to a machine and will never leave the bed again just let me go.”
I don’t agree with a lot of the HTT crowd here who think that if you shorten a life by a few hours or days, or even weeks you’re going to hell.
According to most it’s racism if you treat them the same.
Just look at the racial preferences and “ethnic politics” of hiring into a fire department in a large city. “Equal” is still racism to most blacks who are asked to compete evenly for jobs.
If you are serious about your desire, put it in writing. If you don’t and can’t speak for yourself, those decissions will be made by distrought family members.
I’m with you, let me have a clean dignified death.
I know, but I am still at that stage in life where I consider myself invincible.
It’s getting time to take care of that now though, you’re right.
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