The Death Book for Veterans - Page 2

I don't like the idea of any insurer, government or private, having any influence over people's end-of-life decisions. Too much conflict of interest there because obviously it costs a lot more to treat people so that they live longer rather than not treat them.

For that reason, I don't like the idea of any insurer, government or private, being the direct payer for a professional's services in end-of-life decisionmaking. It gives them a subtle influence over the professional in question, who the patient should be able to trust without reservation. I'm not saying doctors would be intentionally getting people to kill themselves off to help square up the bottom line, but I do think they'd be targeted with propoganda to that effect, and it's already known that the scrips doctors write are influenced by which drugs the pharmaceutical companies sell them on. It might be a small percentage, but across that many people a small percentage would add up fast, and anyway, one person rolling over and dying who would otherwise have chosen to live is too much, even if we don't know which person it is.

If the government wants to cover this, here's what they should do: Make it a cash payout, available at suitably long intervals, to the insured person for the going rate to talk it over with a lawyer or other expert, so that they go into that office, or have the lawyer/etc. come to them, as an absolute equal to anyone else who's paying cash to get exactly what they want down in black and white. Yes, then they might use it for something else, and some of them will, but that's their choice and then they don't get to have their wishes guaranteed. I don't see any other way to make sure that the insurer is not anywhere in the professional relationship between the patient and their end-of-life wishes adviser.

My opinion is that end of life decisions should be made when you are still healthy and young enough to be able to think clearly and rationally about it. It should be made by nobody but yourself, with no input from anybody. You should think what you would honestly want for yourself when the time comes, then head to the lawyers to put it all into writing. Then you should make all your family and loved ones and health care providers aware of what you're wishes are. It shouldn't be up to the doctor, up to the government, or up to anyone but YOU.

That said, people are making much ado about this one little clause. It's not making it mandatory that you have end of life counseling with your doctor, it's just making it so the doctor will get paid if YOU decide you want to consult with him. Nobody is advocating euthanasia as far as I can determine, but if you don't want to be kept alive with feeding tubes and what not, people need to know. It shouldn't come down to the family having to make a decision like that, or worse yet the government.