Bill is not entirely wrong here.
Two examples I'll give.
1) Patient on Medicaid and should be on hospice (humane thing to do at this point). Family refuses. Taxpayers are billed for dialyses, transportation, long-term care facility, and medications all of this is crazy expensive. Who is paying? All of us, yet we have no say in it.
2) Patient is on private insurance. Terminal cancer, nothing can be done and body starts shutting down. Again they should be put on hospice. Family refuses. Patient is put on ECMO and ventilator, IV drugs are administrated, and hospital days are racking up. You're looking at a 500k+ dollar bill at this point. Who pays? All of us when our rates go up to cover this.
Gates lamented that Americans are unwilling to question if spending money on people in “the last three months” of their lives was cost-effective.
100% correct.
My solution is going to be different than Bill's. You could eliminate Medicaid or at the very least decrease its size and scope. You could allow insurance polices you buy into knowing that they don't cover senseless end of life efforts.
The amount of money this country wastes in hospitals and long-term care is obscene. It is a difficult conversation but a legitimate one to be had. At the end of the day it comes down to people making choices with other peoples' money and we will never have good results with that in mind. The system needs to change.
yeah!
Problem is, who decides when the end of life comes? Now days hospitals will turn off machines.
Terminal cancer patients shouldn't go on pump. Unless there is a chance they could be cured.
Do you really want the super wealthy that can afford all healthcare including that rarified care based on murdered children's bodies to decide your right to exist?
This country wastes more money on jew wars and buying political favors (the US sends israel 35 million dollars every day).
People die all the time because they're too poor to afford healthcare or because they are unable to navigate the system to obtain necessary care.
"Who deserves healthcare". Who deserves to learn to read? Who deserves to heat their house over 65 degrees? Who deserves to eat 1200kcal per day? Who deserves protein? Water? Shelter?
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Problem is, who decides when the end of life comes?
That's the crux. Ideally it should be left to the individual. Perhaps insurance policies which try to be as clear as possible as to what would be done and not done. The policy holder would have to have a living will which coincides with the policy. The policies would then be priced accordingly.
I'm not married to a particular solution. I really don't know what the answer is. I only know what we have now isn't working.
Terminal cancer patients shouldn't go on pump. Unless there is a chance they could be cured.
The patient was a teenage child with leukemia. Age was likely part of the reason these steps were even considered. I'm not sure why the doctors performed this. The patient did end up passing.
This country wastes more money on jew wars and buying political favors (the US sends israel 35 million dollars every day).
I agree, but this is another subject.
"Who deserves healthcare". Who deserves to learn to read? Who deserves to heat their house over 65 degrees? Who deserves to eat 1200kcal per day? Who deserves protein? Water? Shelter?
I suppose anyone who can afford this deserves it. I'm not a big advocate of taking other people's money at gun point (aka taxes) to provide these things for others. This could be a prolonged discussion. If we were a homogeneous nation perhaps a form of national socialism would be acceptable.
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Is there biblical text on these issues?