And of course, the wealthy will still be able to afford plenty of late-life healthcare. So “don’t spend public money on old people” realistically translates to “poor people don’t deserve to live as long as rich people.”
Yeah, pretty much so. That is - at least if they aren’t “paying their own way.” I don’t perceive much reason to warehouse useless old bodies. Just one of many instances in which many folk would say I’m not really a nice person.
Heck, some have even called me a misanthrope! 
The logical end point of “we can’t determine the date on which it’s acceptable to stop spending money to help people” is of course “fuck it, let’s not spend money to help anyone.” And, y’know, say what you will, but at least it’s an ethos.
Often appealing to slide down a perceived slippery slope. Hate to alert you to the fact that lines get drawn all the time.
Not with respect to killing off old people they don’t. Not here or anywhere else I know of.
In societies that take care of elderly people (and that aren’t barbaric), those lines get drawn by patients, families, and doctors, not by bureaucrats.
Well, thankfully both of my parents had enough money to pay for their care in the last years of their lives.
But there were/are a fair number of folks in that facility who are being ‘warehoused’ by Medicaid/Medicare. Serious question: what would you propose should be done with those people? Turn them out on the street once their money runs out? Take them to a homeless shelter? Really, what’s your solution?
Probably the most inexpensive minimally comfortable warehousing possible, and provision of little other than palliative care. I would drastically reduce the amount of expensive heroic efforts expended on people as they pass various ages - perhaps cross referenced with their medical histories. Sorry if your health is bad, but there is a limit as to how much should be spent to keep you alive to watch TV - or in a memory care unit.
Yeah, many folk would think me a horrible person for my views WRT the resources that ought to be directed to various groups of “non-productive” individuals. I don’t expect society to be terribly interested in me either.
I think this a highly accurate sentiment.
I tried to make that point earlier…that in my limited experiences, there were very little, if any, of those actions. It’s also been my observation that these aged people, including my own parents, are ready to die, particularly when their bodies are slowly, (or rapidly) deteriorating.
Just what do you think Medicaid provides today? Perhaps you should visit an elderly care home and see for yourself what level of care is given to those people that can’t afford anything more.
Yeah, I likely am mistakenly relying on confirmation bias of limited folk I have encountered personally who receive hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of care in the final years of what has been a long decline. But such limited personal experiences are generally a poor basis for public policy.
My band plays at assisted living facilities regularly. Which has contributed to my conclusion that I never want to stay in even the nicest of them. And the memory care floors are IMO absolute horror shows. You would put down a dog…
My job has me review medical records daily, so I see many many instances of the resources - medical and other - provided to people who have never worked and never intend to, no matter the amount of resources directed to them.
But I was content for this topic to have languished before. I have no desire of convincing anyone to think as I do. And I’ve already provided plenty for persons wishing to to firm up negative impressions of me. So I’ll try to stop reading/replying to this thread.
Yes, “work sets you free.” Why don’t people realize that?
My mother spent her last few years in a nursing home that accepted Medicaid, and while it wasn’t a luxury resort, it wasn’t horrible. The rooms were comfortable, the food was decent, the nurses appeared promptly when needed and remembered to bring her a milkshake every afternoon. They offered social events, although that was the kind of thing my mom had an aversion to.
But we had managed to plan ahead. She was a self-pay patient when she first entered the nursing home, and we had been advised to put her in the nicest place we could find that also accepted Medicaid. She probably would not have been accepted if she had entered as a Medicaid patient. And I will note that even though she was on Medicaid it wasn’t free - we had to turn over the entirety of her social security check to the nursing home each month and if we hadn’t had special circumstances ( my disabled brother shared the home with her), they would’ve put a lien on her home as a condition of getting Medicaid.
I feel very strongly that patients, family and their doctors should have more options regarding end of life care, including the ability to proactively end their life. This opinion is largely informed by my mom’s suffering during her last year and my awareness that all she wanted was for it to permanently end. I’ve worked with my lawyer regarding my own advanced health care directives, and they include moving me to a jurisdiction where assisted suicide is legal if I decide I don’t want to do it anymore.
But I’m not sure how I will feel when that time comes, and if I’m not suffering and content to lie in a nursing home bed all day watching TV and occasionally visiting with family and there are safe and effective medical treatments that will allow me to continue doing so, I don’t want to be denied access to those treatments on the basis that I’m a burden to society.
That never would have occurred to me, but that is very good advice.
Usually those plans make an exception for a gynecologist for a woman, because gynecology care is considered preventive healthcare for a woman.
Having recentish experience with this, this is exactly true.
We planned on moving the in-laws to a home near one of the adult “kids”. Our location (mid-Atlantic) was top choice because the weather here is better than where the other siblings live - but the only decent places that would take Medicaid required proof that the incoming resident had something like 2 years worth of expenses IN THEIR OWN NAME - i.e. not guaranteed by a family member. Which of course would really screw up the Medicaid application process later on - since that’s means-tested, I’m not sure what happens if you run out of money before you’ve been able t to complete the application.
SIL found a place that was not too costly, nearer her, and the family paid the expenses duing the application process.
I was going to make a rather detailed reply to this, but I decided to condense it.
Anyone who is in the situation where they need to spend down their assets in order to qualify for Medicaid nursing home care needs a specialized elder care attorney, and they need to engage them early on.
We were able to preserve a considerable portion of my mother’s assets by doing so, and we would’ve been able to preserve more of them if we had engaged the attorney even sooner.
It was expensive, but the legal fees came out of her assets, which in most cases would’ve gone to the nursing home anyway.
Fascinating - would be very interested in what steps you took.
This would not have been an issue for my in-laws, as they had gone bankrupt YEARS before assisted living became a concern. In theory, not for us as well as we have long-term care insurance, but something we should consider (especially as we really NEED to leave something to help our adult special-needs kids).