The question is who is going to do the rationing. I object to the federal govt doing the rationing, but I don't object to them paying for MY needs.
Sadly it does come down to costs and who will make the decisions. Saying we don't want the feds make these decision is fine, but who is?
We can talk about what we don't want but what are we willing to live with? The more local these decisions are the better in my book. By local I mean me, then family, then county if needed and maybe state? The decisions will not be perfect but they for damn sure aren't perfect now.
An interesting observation. Mental health has stayed a local county fiscal repsonsibility here in Iowa and if I remember right, the biggest expense is mental health. I want to say 40-50% but don't know for sure.
I have also observed an ex prisoner receive free cancer treatment and not bother to show up for his appts, continue to smoke and expect me to pay for his motel room when he did go for appts.
My 83 year old Mother-in-law is in the final stages of Parkinson’s. Upon admission to the nursing home, she signed several directives about her end of life care. She is basically frozen and cannot move except for one finger. She has had several life threatening infections but when asked if she wants treatment she always says “yes.” We are now going on year three and she is going through all of her savings, which were targeted for care of her developmentally disabled daughter. Right now, medicare doesn’t pay for much of her care except for her medications. Everything is private pay until you spend all of your savings. She is miserable but is afraid to die. It’s her money though and she can spend it as she pleases. She gets very little joy out of life and complains constantly. She refuses to participate in anything. I admit to wondering “what’s the point?”. The care of her daughter will fall on me and will be a long term burden without extra cash assistance. Publicly funded group homes are now required to house mentally ill patients along with the developmentally disabled. I could go on... Suffice it to say it’s a big problem and until you experience it yourself, it’s hard to understand why something needs to be done.