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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: thames_sider who wrote (89844)	10/13/2008 1:49:53 PM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 542004

US Medicare ramped up its hospice program not too long ago as an alternative to extensive care at the end of life with little benefit. When my father and I used it at the end, I was impressed. It's very compassionate and his death was graceful. The hook is that they pay for everything including home visits nearly every day and a hot line for the rest of the time. Were the floor higher, he would not have had that incentive and he might have pursued useless treatment to his detriment and that of the taxpayers. I didn't get a good sense with my one experience the extent to which people choose to take advantage of it. As far as I know, there are no surveys on changing attitudes over time about prolonging life once things pass a certain point. One of the problems with costing any changes in taxpayer-funded health offerings is assessing how heavily it will be used, whether demand will increase and by how much both by those near the end and younger people seeking to prolong life, not just treat existing ailments.