Hospitals push age hike for Medicare - Page 5

Agree. The biggest problem is end of life when families let their loved ones linger on vents, etc. If there was some sort of health team that had a good talk with them honestly, things could change. Lots of families have no clue about what it takes to recesitate someone who is never going to live anyways. You know what I mean. Again, if the family of a severely demented, incontinent patient, a patient that they do not pay for in a skilled nursing home, is told that it will have to come out of their pockets to continue.............will they go for the feeding tube? Will they take them home and care for them? Doubtful. People expect too much and are living in fantasyland.

Where I work Medicare pts get the cadillac treatment. Basically everything. Tests, drugs, Xrays, therapy. Imagine PT for someone who hasn't walked in 6 months. Doctors order it because it will be reimbursed. Pts and families go along with the doc because...they don't have to pay for it.
Would raising the age force pts and families to more closely consider cost, since they will be responsible for a larger portion of it? WOuld that be where the savings would come from?

Kudos to your post. Couldn't agree more.

It doesn't matter what your political affiliation is, the other side will say whatever they can to stop you. Remember the death panels? Obama was the one pulling the plug on Granny just a little while ago, and most people view him as a lib.

As someone closer to the end than the beginning, I will be really annoyed if they pull the rug from those of us close to 65. Many of us have been hanging on trying to get to that point and have geared our retirement savings to include medicare at 65.

I think as with any multi-generational program, people need a lot of lead time.

Agree. I am counting the days/years when I can retire and have health care with medicare. I cannot quit now due to the high price of insurance. The thought of a few more years of working is depressing. I need to play the lotto.

I can't believe the people rooting for higher Medicare age. You really want to work into your 70s?

I'm 56, and have been an RN for 30 years. The thought of working until I'm 70 or older, makes me want to vomit. I find my self more and more counting the days til I'm 65 and can retire. I am counting on Soc security and medicare to be there when I'm 65. I sure paid enough into it all these years. I don't think I'm the only older nurse that feels this way. All you newly minted nurses out there with all that idealistic enthusiam- go for it!! Just keep your finger off my retirement age. Don't go mucking that up.- as far as I'm concerned- it can't come fast enough.
I'll be damned if between the ages of 65-70 I'm going to battle for scaps(temp positions and fill in positions) like us older nurses are doing now.
I guess it is against the younger nurses religion to read the news- about the older workers(the over 50 crowd) underemployment and unemployment rates. Even if you just surf the internet- you can click on AARP and find the info.

So if I quit before 65 or now it looks like 67 then I have no health care insurance. So I either pay a huge amount of money which I will not have because I will not be working (sort of an oxymoron?) monthly or.......I pay as I go and pray I do not need surgery or even an MRI. Or, a better thought.....quit work, travel first class, buy a fine car, have beautiful furniture, eat out; in other words spend it all and then if I become sick get the best care for free. Sounds like a lot of our patients. I just am too scared to do such a thing, but it works.

Whether any of us like it or not, in the end, the Fed govt will not be able to afford to pay for health care for anyone. We had this discussion while I was still in nursing school. Our professor asked what we thought medical care would look like in the future of the U.S., say over the next 15 years. A number of people had various opinions but I raised my hand and said I felt that our health care would be similar to that in most African countries (and I have lived in and traveled through several and had contact with health care systems at various points), to wit: the patient begins to feel something is physically wrong and goes to see a doctor. There is no health insurance anywhere in Africa (with, perhaps the exception of South Africa) and hence the patient must pay cash to see a doctor. It is difficult to get labwork done as the facilities and funds simply do not exist and are hard to find. If, however, the person is fortunate and is able to get labs done and is given a terminal diagnosis, unless they have cash money to pay for care, they are then sent home to die. That is what it will be here within the next 20 years. My professor became quite alarmed at such a suggestion and said she felt that we would at least be able to get annual physicals but that would be about it. However, getting a stand-alone physical will be of no help if one cannot do something about any negative findings. It only buys you time to "put your affairs in order". This situation is the same for adults and small children in Africa and that is the way it will be here. Once the dollar bottoms out, and the price of petrol is no longer tied to it as the dollar will be worthless, then no one will care about what happens to US citizens, only that we owe out money everywhere and how are we going to pay it back, let alone take care of our citizens. In the end, I also believe that it will eventually come to a scenario where senior citizens will be euthanized once they are diagnosed with expensive diseases. There will be no more feeding tubes, TPN, ventilators or anything else to keep people alive as no one will be able to afford such measures. Of course, people will fight against euthanasia. But if the money is not there to pay for things, it simply is not there. Given that, euthanasia might be the more merciful option when the only other option will be to let the person suffer. This scenario will also apply to small children, preemies, and anyone else who acquires a serious and costly illness and doesn't have cash to pay for care. In African countries, at this point, when people are given their diagnosis and sent home to die, they oftentimes drink pesticides to poison themselves and die quickly (albeit painfully) as there are no other options for those who do not have money. Of course, there are no nursing homes either.

In this country, we have become terribly spoiled and believe that no American should die as Africans do on a daily basis. The medical community, including us nurses, has been trained to believe that if no DNR or similar instrument is in place that we must take extravagant, heroic measures to keep the person alive. That is the law and we can be sued if we don't. However, all that is based on the fact that the patient still has the choice to try to stay alive by not executing a DNR and that the legal community is still there to back up this choice by the threat of suit. This will not always be the case.

Just as we all know, in field triage after a disaster, there are some people who we must, of necessity, pass over as we know they will not survive. We must focus our efforts on those who have the best chance of survival. Sooner or later, it will be like this in America as the entire country will be one big medical field disaster.