Cut state funding to terminal patients so they "can die quickly"

japantimes ^ | Jan. 22, 2013 | REIJI YOSHIDA

[Rabin]

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Taro Aso... on social security reforms, "the medical system should be changed so that the many terminal patients now using government money for expensive treatment, can quickly pass away. Such patients can keep living even if they wish to die...

[CitizenUSA]

You’re absolutely right. We have a socialized medical system, and we know socialism ultimately destroys itself, we have a socialized education system, and we know socialism destroys itself, etc. The government proposes to fix the very market distortions it created with more market distortions! Unfortunately, I really doubt anyone is going to do anything substantial to change the system until after the collapse. As the wealth redistributors love to say, “We’re a wealthy country!” Right? LOL!

[silverleaf]

false dilemma

first you deny treatment to “incoherent 90 year olds” to justify rationing

then when your costs continue to rise and your dollars remain “finite’, how about denying treatment to incoherent 80 year olds? well, then, how about 70 yr olds with stage 4 cancer that can be managed but not cured? Is that last 5-10 years of life “too expensive”??

What about a 40 year depressive who wants to die? Is it worth expensive treatment to keep them alive against their will?

Now, what about vaccines for a Tay Sachs child or neurobastoma child with a life expectancy of 2 years? For a Down’s child? For a child with a 3rd recurrence of leukemia? Is that the best return for your finite dollars?
What about a 22 week fetus? Is it worth a million dollars to do a C-section and try to save them with a 10% chance of normal survival?

Government takeover and then rationing of medical care for private citizens is not a line in the sand - it is a steep and slippery slope. If I had to choose between the Catholic church and the obama administration to make decisions about medical care and the value of my life, I choose the church
opinion.

[sten]

socialized medicine... it’s free, dontcha know... it’s got to bet better then actually paying for stuff

[Notary Sojac]

there are going to have to be choices made whether we like it or not

You're getting perilously close to the third rail here (I've tread on it many times).

This conservative website contains many, many posters who believe that the government should spend unlimited quantities of taxed and borrowed money to keep every American nonagerian on unlimited high tech life support.

Anything less is routinely equated with opening up the cans of Zyklon B.

[ontap]

I choose a strong capitalistic system that allows people to pay for whatever care they want and a government that is out of the medical industry completely!!

[theBuckwheat]

“I cannot sleep well when I think of (myself receiving expensive treatments) by using government money,...”

So, deep down inside even a socialist knows he is stealing from others in order to live. When people are spending their own money, they are free to spend it as they please or give it away as they see fit.

But many people have been seduced into supporting a morally corrupt and morally corrupting system where they all attempt to live at the expense of others, which in the end destroys far more wealth than it spreads around.

Socialism is evil and those who live by it shall die by it.

[Cyber Liberty]

[Aevery_Freeman]

Wow, you will probably be blasphemed for your statement but it needed to be said.

If you want heroic end-of-life measures, be sure to get rich during your life.

Just as food, shelter and jobs are not rights, neither is health care. Access to these things is a right but the things themselves must not be guaranteed by the state.

Providing these things provides short term benefits, especially for lying politicians, but eventually destroys the host.

[ontap]

You are right on the money. I recently had appendicitis. I was given an MRI. The bill for the MRI was $8000.00. The insurance paid $2500.00 and they billed me $500.00 approx. Going on line I found out the median price for an MRI was $250-$500. I told them in no uncertain terms that they had collected all they were going too!!

[Notary Sojac]

Your post is not quite coherent.

You make a credible case for the worth of pursuing all these expensive medical care scenarios, but fail to make it clear whether or not you believe taxpayers should be forced, under penalty of imprisonment, to pay for them.

I choose the church opinion.

That's as may be, but I don't see the Catholic (or any other) church stepping up to replace the government's role in paying the doctors, nurses, and hospitals. The Catholic hospitals take every Medicare and Medicaid dollar they can. And having "the king's shilling" they are not well positioned to object to the king's decrees.

[G Larry]

Everyone is “terminal”, as none are getting out of here alive.

Gov’t will soon decide all expensive treatment will be withheld.

[ontap]

Tons of money spent on so called heroic procedures aren't spent for the patient or the patients family. It is spent by a corrupt medical establishment that takes every opportunity to gouge the government system and government system corrupt enough to take the payoff(campaign contributions)to let them get away with it!!!

[Notary Sojac]

I'm aware of Medicare patients (Taxpaying American citizens all their long lives) who have received at least five times more in benefits than they and their employers ever paid into the program, even considering a generous allowance for compound interest.

To my knowledge, not a one of them has ever said "I've gotten more than my money's worth, from here on out I will pay my own way".

[Notary Sojac]

So if we stopped government funding for those “so called heroic procedures” you’d be OK with that??

[bert]

Then there is the grandaughter. She is unwilling to face the reality that grammie is dying. She will not permit, in fact will throw a hissy fit, insisting that everything possible be done. She has absolutely no understanding of what is happening. She insists things will improve if the medical staff just does it’s job and makes grammie better.

All stops are pulled out, every test known to man is administered. Dialysis replaces failed kidneys, etctc.....

90 days later grammie is dead. The cost of remedying the hissy fit is astronomical. The process achieved nothing beyond making the granddaughter feel better about herself. The exercise in self esteem building cost tens of thousands of dollars and achieved nothing.

[ontap]

I'm OK with people making decisions after knowing the facts. The procedures are carried out without consulting the family or informing them of the benefit or lack of benefit to the patient. They are done to enrich the hospital at the expense of the taxpayer. If a patient is terminal and their death is eminent then they should be relieved of as much pain as possible and allowed a dignified death. If there is a chance of extending their life so they will have more quality time then that should happen. Living an extra two months in a coma is not living IMHO!!

[ontap]

The cost is closer to hundreds of thousands!!

[Lazamataz]

Since we made the decision 55 years ago not to have childern knowing what they would have to live through in the demise of this country

I screw with ya sometimes, but you were amazingly prescient and very forward-thinking here.

[ontap]

To my knowledge, not a one of them has ever said "I've gotten more than my money's worth, from here on out I will pay my own way".

Funny thing , I've known several that did exactly that.

[thesearethetimes...]

BTTT

Dear Lord, guide and strengthen us in Your will.
Tatt