Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) introduced a bill last month, the Protecting Life Until Natural Death Act, which would revoke Medicare reimbursement for the sessions, which he called a “yet another life-devaluing policy.”
Hm. Despite our attempts to avoid it -- including through heroic, fruitless, and terribly expensive medical intervention -- everybody is going to die. Everybody is going to die.
The idea of a doctor going through the options with his patient is .... a good thing.
"Yes, Mrs. Smith; we can keep you alive for another 6 months, during which you'll either be semi-conscious or in great discomfort. Or we can let nature take its course and keep you as comfortable as possible for the next month."
And on a purely statistical note, during those last six months, Mrs. Smith is going to incur huge medical costs, and she's still going to die. Given that the costs are generally carried by others -- by taxpayers or through higher insurance premiums -- it seems fair to ask whether or not the money was well spent.
In our society there's a great deal of pretense and denial associated with death. Medicine can do great things, but it cannot do everything. When a person's time has come, it seems to me that we ought to be honest about it. There's not always a clear answer, and it's always hard to talk about. But there
is a line, beyond which medical intervention really does no good.
And, if it's properly done, Medicare has both a moral and financial responsibility to pay for the discussion.
Rep. King needs to reconsider his position.
