Obama raises the forbidden question
Should we pay for expensive medical procedures for people who are really old or terminally ill? In an interview with David Leonhardt, Obama talked about his grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, who had terminal cancer but got a hip replacement anway, presumably paid for by Medicare.
“I don’t know how much that hip replacement cost,” Mr. Obama said in the interview with David Leonhardt of The Times. “I would have paid out of pocket for that hip replacement, just because she’s my grandmother. Whether, sort of in the aggregate, society making those decisions to give my grandmother, or everybody else’s aging grandparents or parents, a hip replacement when they’re terminally ill is a sustainable model is a very difficult question.”He went on to say: “If somebody told me that my grandmother couldn’t have a hip replacement and she had to lie there in misery in the waning days of her life, that would be pretty upsetting.”
Comments
Forbidden? This is precisely the debate congress and the American people must have. When health care is strictly a private sector issue the answer is straightforward. But as more of health care is socialized politicians must be truthful about what that means - that they, not the individual, has a say in how much a life is worth.
Posted by: Dan | April 30, 2009 11:50 AM
Having watched both parents die recently after various extensive and expensive but wholly anticipated pointless efforts...
Whoever makes the decision and whatever the criteria may be the time to make it ( or set policy) is NOT when a loved one is lying in a hospital bed.
Just because doctors can do something is not reason enough to insist that they do it.
Posted by: MrRational | April 30, 2009 4:03 PM
I'm guessing she had a fracture repair, possibly with a prothestic, which is a whole different issue than an elective hip repair.
Posted by: save_the_rustbelt | May 4, 2009 4:27 PM
If they do away with medicare, are they going to give me back my money that they took out of my pay all these years?
Posted by: Barbara Wilson | May 13, 2009 7:26 PM