America needs DEATH PANELS

America needs DEATH PANELS

You remember the old “death panel” scare over so called healthcare reform. Well let me tell you a story about the America healthcare system.

I lost my mother, sister and uncle over the last 3 years. All had cancer and a few other ailments. All went into the hospital and were given a diagnosis of “DYING”.

My mother was 84 had cancer in multiple locations, and was anemic. She couldn’t stand or walk. The initial doctor told us she would not live more than 2 months, but there was treatment available that could “improve her quality of life”. He also told us he would like to have some tests run and they were covered by Medicare.

Four months later my mother had under gone radiation, multiple tests including an MRI, CT scan, multiple blood tests and several blood transfusions, along with two stays in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Finally, as she was whimpering in her bed we demanded all treatment stop. She died within 24 hours, finally in peace without tubes and without being poked and pushed and taken to testing areas.

Why was she treated when they knew she was dying? Money! The doctors, hospital and testing groups maximized the profit available before they allowed her to die. Everything they did had profit associated. Tests, ICU, hospital bed, treatment, needles, blood, doctor visits, etc. They kept ringing the cash register. They extracted tens of thousands from Medicare, you and me, before she was allowed to do what they said she would do –DIE!

90% of all the money spent on our medical care is in the final year of life. For those like my mother who are dying – they still die. All the spending according to the AMA adds about 6 months to any given life; most spend this time in a hospital.

My sister got sick quickly and was diagnosed with a massive, inoperable growth in her abdomen. The doctor said she is going to DIE. She too was given radiation and also chemotherapy. These did terrible things to her and she was too weak to go home. She went in walking and happy and soon became very sick from the treatments. She was taken to the ICU many times for various organ failures. She too had many tests run and finally we said enough. It took over a week to get them to stop ringing the cash register and let her die.

Why did we just do what the doctors told us to do? Americans are trained to listen to the doctor because he is smart and there to help you. In fact he is there to make money and as much money as he can.

My uncle had a written death plan – no necessitation at all. He was very sick when he was taken into the hospital and he went home and stayed there for about 6 months with daily visits from a hospice nurse. He was given pain killer and he could take what he needed to kill the pain. This is far less expensive than hospital and ICU care. He was moved to a hospice center and died there. He wasn’t given tests, medications or expensive doctor visits. He did what we all have to do – DIE!

Americans are over treated, over medicated, over tested and charged more than any people on earth and we still DIE. Do we live longer than Europeans? NO! Are we healthier than Europeans? No! Do we pay more than Europeans? Oh HELL YES – three times as much.

While I was outside the ICU waiting for my sister to come out I talked to an older women who had a father in the ICU. Her father was 96 on a ventilator. He wasn’t conscious and couldn’t talk, but he was alive. The family demanded he be kept alive so they could come and see him in the ICU. Medicare insurance paid to keep him alive. I asked what would happen if they disconnected the ventilator? He would DIE, she said.

I went through some of the Medicare billing statements for my mom and sister. You and I spent over $200,000 to keep them from dying, put them through terrible treatments and they still died.

The cost of an ICU is between $4,000 and $5,000 per day. Many of those in the ICU are in fact dead people who will not DIE.

We pay to keep old dead people alive at $5,000 per day plus anything else the doctors can bill is for and there are 8 million American children without health insurance.

We do this because there is massive profit in this system for the healthcare providers. This has to stop. We need to tell OLD people who are dying to go home and DIE. We need to provide them with comfort and let them DIE.

No one gets to live forever – we all must die. Maybe we need “death panels” to help us understand this and to stop the un-Godly profits from the sick, suffering and dying.

How many children could have been covered by the $200,000 wasted on treating my mother and sister? How many could be treated if we stopped this crazy idea everyone deserves to stay alive for one more day at any cost?

What do you think?