Colon Cancer Screening Was the Last Thing on His Mind...

[McCamy Taylor]

7. Excellent point and one of the problems with Medicare. We fully insure people who are

elderly. Some of these people are extremely frail, and they do not respond well to therapies that are used on younger people----and they do not need them. But, they have that insurance, and hospitals have beds to fill, and doctors are taught to do "something" not nothing. It is a brave---and unusual--- patient who is able to say "No thanks, doc. I'm 99 years old, i think I'll live with this tiny little breast cancer." My elderly father-in-law was killed by overly aggressive medical care for prostate cancer.

On the other hand, it is crime the way that we let people in their 40s and 50s who are otherwise strong and who would do well with aggressive therapy die for lack of treatment.

"Full insurance" should not be an excuse to rip someone off--I wrote a journal a long time ago about a bed ridden patient with advanced Alzheimers who died of complications after an orthopedist convinced her family that a new hip would improve her quality of life.

Lack of insurance should not be a death sentence.

Health care should not be for profit.