Tonight I saw a PBS newshour segment on end-of-life care. It is a wrenching experience, full of strong emotions that are uncomfortable. Who wants to feel responsible for deciding when to end someone else’s life? It’s an awful position. But how many people prepare for this situation and do what’s needed to prevent putting their relatives through it? Beyond the impact on a person’s friends and family, this lack of planning shifts a huge amount of medical resources into end-of-life treatment which produce little benefit to anyone - not to the patient, and not to the family. Of course, no one wants a “federal death panel” but that’s not the only option. We can force people to take responsibility for themselves:
Require all citizens to have a living will.
Make it part of the process of getting and/or renewing a driver’s license (which is already considered risky enough to require insurance) and any federal entitlement program. Have a few standardized examples that people could choose if they don’t want to spend much time personalizing their own. Show the expected cost of each option based on recent spending and healthcare outcomes.
