General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: does anyone know if seniors are eligible for ACA. [View all]kestrel91316
(51,666 posts)What "conspiracy"???
Everyone knows that Medicare was set up to provide medical care for the elderly (over 65). Duh.
I just think it's idiotic that 90% of this country's healthcare dollars are spent in the last year of people's lives, particularly the very elderly with failed minds and failing bodies who are terminally ill and completely dependent on physical assistance to live day to day, unaware of their surroundings.
My BIL (who works in healthcare) and I had a recent conversation about things and he is concerned, as many people are, about rising healthcare costs, particularly when those costs are for extremely expensive care for bedridden dementia patients. We agreed that everybody we know, and probably most people we DON'T know, would NOT want life-extending, hideously expensive care once we reached that stage. I know we didn't subject my mom to it, and we don't want ourselves subjected to it.
Doctors and hospitals, however, love that sort of thing because it's so profitable, even though the benefit to society is virtually nonexistent. I think we would do better to fund hip replacements and cancer care for old folks with good minds than hip replacements and cancer care for people who no longer know who or where they are.
Pretty sure there's no conspiracy talk in there.