Posted on 07/22/2006 1:49:54 AM PDT by WaterDragon
he amount of money Medicare spends on chronically ill patients varies substantially from state to state, with nearly $40,000 spent per patient in New Jersey and the District of Columbia, but less than $24,000 spent in states such as Indiana and West Virginia.
Yet, there is no indication that patients in the states with the highest spending are better off than those in states with the lowest spending. In fact, the reverse seems to be true, according to researchers at Dartmouth Medical School...(snip)
"We need to redirect resources away from acute care and invest in infrastructure that can better coordinate and integrate care outside of hospitals—for example, home health and hospice care,'' the report said.
The researchers concluded that the federal government could save tens of billions of dollars a year, plus improve care, if it took steps to prevent the overuse of health care.
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
We seem to be at a point in medical technology where we can suspend death for a while, and push it back, but not always provide any real quality-of-life during that time. I don't think there should be any stigma attatched to those who decline hospital care in the waning days, and simply let go at home, like people did in the centuries before we thought we knew better.
It would seem obvious at first glance that $40k in NJ or DC is the equivalent of $24k in WV..
Senior Citizens have been raping the system for years, don't look for them to stop anytime soon.
Bingo!
When my FIL was dieing, he was transferred to a "specialty hospital" without our consent (hubby was health surrogate.)
We went to the regular hospital, and were told he was transferred.
We literally fought with the doctors at the specialty hospital to keep him off a ventilator, and to keep them from inserting a feeding tube (we were following his wishes laid out in his Living Will.)
He was the only patient in the hospital without a feeding tube or not on a ventilator.
He passed away after a few weeks, but the pressure and guilt exerted from the "doctors" during that time was unbelievable. My husband stood by his father's Living Will wishes. He was 93 when this happened.
All life should be regarded as precious from newborn to senior. Making a person comfortable during the end days is humane and whether the plug is pulled should be left up to the individual not the govt or people who believe in euthanizing the elderly. One day all of us will be elderly.
The problem is people want to force other people to pay for their health care.
Sometimes, death comes most peacefully when there are no plugs to pull, because that type of care has been declined. The waning moments of life don't always have to take place in a hospital.
I know, my mom was in our home and was cared for by her family, myself and her grandchildren. We also had hospice nurses visiting to make her comfortable. It was a difficult process to endure for her family but was better for her.
Well, we can hope to be ;o)
True enough, but I also think a lot of people would be better off without a lot of the medications being handed out these days. Let's see, we're told if we're light sleepers we should use a sleeping pill (Ambien, etc.), rather than doing some light exercise before bed-time; we're told we "need" meds for hiatal hernias and/or acid reflux, when some simple breathing exercises would remedy the problem without the side effects; we're told we have to take meds for everything from shyness to attention "disorders" (anyone ever heard of learning to concentrate? we were taught that in grammar school when I was a kid in the "dark ages").
On top of that, we're told we need surgeries for many things that could be corrected in other ways (not talking about emergencies).
Yeah, it's expensive, but it doesn't have to be.
I take ONE medication, although at one time they had prescribed about 10 for me. I'm trying to find ways to cut that one out too. On the other hand, I have friends my age who get the whole enchilada--the drug companies' dream.
No, their doctors have been raping the system for years--and their patients as well.
Might it be that the healthier elders NEED LESS health care?
The article didn't say anything about rationing. Medicaid & Medicare will foot the bill for full time nursing home care in cases where it would be less expensive for the patient to stay in their own home.
Doctors will schedule endless appointments and tests to keep the insurance money coming in, and the elderly often are seduced by this because they get so little attention elsewhere. And as someone has already noted, the elderly are drugged to the teeth, often the various doctors prescribing don't pay attention to what they're already taking.
Anyone with a grain of intelligence will take responsibility for his own health -- keep his weight down, exercise regularly, take vitamins and supplements, eat sensibly and will avoid medications as much as possible. No guarantee you'll live longer, but you're less likely to die because of medical incompetence.
But I guess it's more fun to act like an entitled adolescent and then whine.
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