Scarcity of care that extends life

[markdohle]

Scarcity of care that extends life

I had to go to VA here in Atlanta for a procedure. It had to do with a growth in my ear, a rare phenomena, made me feel so very special. The Doctors were from Emory and very young....or perhaps it is I who am getting old....in any case I trusted them, and that trust was well deserved. On my second visit I ask both the nurse and the doctor who were taking care of me what they thought of the 'baby-boomers" coming of age. I think in the VA most of those receiving care, are from my generation (I will be 65 in Dec). There are sill some from the 2nd World War and of course from Korea but most I believe are now receiving home visits from the VA. They both pretty much said that they are nervous about the volume that is starting to rise, and will continue to grow, straining the system, which is already over taxed.

We do talk of health care, and it needs to be done, but how do we deal with limitations, with the ability of our system to even take care of everyone? I know that a great deal of expense is used to keep people alive in the last week, or even the last couple of days of life. I believe that is a question that needs to be addressed. How do we baby-boomers take to the idea that in the not so distant future, the struggle to extend life for the elderly may have to be dropped, so that those younger may be able to bet better care. Palliative care I believe will be the next main growth in health care. Places where people can go to die as pain free as possible when they have conditions that can't be taken care of because of scarcity.

I know we have hospice care facilitates that people go to now, as well as providing home care. In the near future I believe this will become a main stay in health care system. I am not talking about speeding up the death process, but about knowing when it is time to let go and to allow nature to take its course. This will vary from person to person of course, we have man in my community who is 102 years old and is going strong, others in their early 80's who look to be a hundred. We all age differently, DNA being one factor of course.

The middle aged and young should be given the care that they need to survive, the elderly, well maybe we will be forced to simply allow nature to take its course. This is different than so called mercy killing, which I believe is immoral and just another slippery slop that we can slide down. The dignity of life is preserved by providing care that will allow death to occur naturally, with pain management, that will protect the dignity of all concerned.

Ones own death is not easy to think about or to even comprehend on a deep emotional and feeling level. I think it was Freud who said that when we think of our death, we do so as an observer, which is not what our private deaths are. We do not observe, will experience death.

[sutemi]

Sorry Mark but I have to ask, how can a country like the USA spend unbelievable amounts on war and yet its citizens can be brainwashed into believing they shouldn’t get care when they get old!

“What kind of nation is it …That spends far more to kill enemy combatants than to help its own citizens who live below the poverty line? ….That permits corporations to hold sick children hostage while parents frantically bankrupt themselves to save their sons and daughters?.... That abandons its unemployed while it loots its treasury on behalf of speculators?.... They refuse to halt the destruction of the ecosystem by the fossil fuel industry, dooming our children and our children’s children?.... That ignores due process to torture and assassinate its own citizens?....That tosses its mentally ill onto urban heating grates?” Chris Hedges

[markdohle]

Sorry Mark but I have to ask, how can a country like the USA spend unbelievable amounts on war and yet its citizens can be brainwashed into believing they shouldn’t get care when they get old!

“What kind of nation is it …That spends far more to kill enemy combatants than to help its own citizens who live below the poverty line? ….That permits corporations to hold sick children hostage while parents frantically bankrupt themselves to save their sons and daughters?.... That abandons its unemployed while it loots its treasury on behalf of speculators?.... They refuse to halt the destruction of the ecosystem by the fossil fuel industry, dooming our children and our children’s children?.... That ignores due process to torture and assassinate its own citizens?....That tosses its mentally ill onto urban heating grates?” Chris Hedges

The bottom line in the United States is profit, that includes medicine. We do have some insurance given by the government, VA and Medicare for instance. Also if people go to the ER, and it is life threatening, then they have to get care, they get Medicaid. Care for the mentally ill is a real problem. There are a lot of problems here, but it is the baby boomers, of which I am one, are a problem for the country.

Capitalism when it is based on profit only, greed that is, then corruption enters into the picture and we all lose out in the end. It is true, we can seem to find the billions needed for war, but when it comes to caring for the sick, the mentally ill, it seems to be more of an issue.

There will always be problems. Today, most of the monies used in health care, actually take up the last few days of life, when everything is done to keep someone alive, even if death is the only outcome. That needs to be addressed. Palliative care if given at the last stage of life, for the elderly, is enough for most of us I believe. We shall see.

Peace

mark

Edited November 22, 2013 by markdohle

[sutemi]

Hi Mark here are some clips from a declaration by Pope Francis that are related to our discussion and I don’t think Sarah Palin and Co are going to like it, recently on CNN she has said “He’s had some statements that to me sound kind of liberal, has taken me aback, has kind of surprised me!” well she is not going to like this new one either.

‘In a new declaration, the pope warns that the ‘culture of prosperity deadens us,’ taking aim at free market capitalists and consumers alike.

“How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points?”

‘Francis is allergic to ostentation. He doesn’t like the imperial trappings of the office. He has no entourage, and moved into rooms at the Casa Santa Maria, the Vatican hotel, instead of occupying the large papal penthouse at the Apostolic Palace. Not for him the Red Prada slippers of his predecessor. His church has cracked down on showy displays of wealth. This fall, he suspended of the Bishop of Limburg, who spent millions of Euros renovating his residence.’ Francis has been relentless in talking about the church’s mission and need to serve the poor. Poverty and inequality used to be accepted as an order imposed by God. Today, Francis forthrightly pinned the blame on humans. The global economy has grown in every year since 1944 except one—2009. Broadly speaking, living standards are rising around the world, and hundreds of millions of people have been lifted out of abject poverty. Yet there are glaring, often violent deficiencies in the system. “Today everything comes under the laws of competition and the survival of the fittest, where the powerful feed upon the powerless,” he wrote. Francis has little use for those who argue that cutting taxes for the rich helps the poor. “Some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world,” “This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralised workings of the prevailing economic system.” As for money, “we calmly accept its dominion over ourselves and our societies.” There are too many worshippers of Mammon among us. “The worship of the ancient golden calf (cf. Ex. 32:1-35) has returned in a new and ruthless guise in the idolatry of money and the dictatorship of an impersonal economy lacking a truly human purpose. While the earnings of a minority are growing exponentially, so too is the gap separating the majority from the prosperity enjoyed by those happy few,” he writes. “This imbalance is the result of ideologies which defend the absolute autonomy of the marketplace and financial speculation. Consequently, they reject the right of states, charged with vigilance for the common good, to exercise any form of control.” He complains about excessive debt and “self-serving tax evasion” among the wealthy. And even as they rig the system, those at the top often “content themselves with blaming the poor and the poorer countries themselves for their trouble.” He calls for reforms that make finance subservient to industry and for the redistribution of wealth. “The Pope loves everyone, rich and poor alike, but he is obliged in the name of Christ to remind all that the rich must help, respect and promote the poor. The culture of prosperity deadens us; we are thrilled if the market offers us something new to purchase. In the meantime all those lives stunted for lack of opportunity seem a mere spectacle; they fail to move us.”

‘It’s a message we should all keep in mind whether we are Catholic or not’ from an article by Daniel Gross Nov 26 2013

[markdohle]

Hi Mark here are some clips from a declaration by Pope Francis that are related to our discussion and I don’t think Sarah Palin and Co are going to like it, recently on CNN she has said “He’s had some statements that to me sound kind of liberal, has taken me aback, has kind of surprised me!” well she is not going to like this new one either.

‘In a new declaration, the pope warns that the ‘culture of prosperity deadens us,’ taking aim at free market capitalists and consumers alike.

“How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points?”

‘Francis is allergic to ostentation. He doesn’t like the imperial trappings of the office. He has no entourage, and moved into rooms at the Casa Santa Maria, the Vatican hotel, instead of occupying the large papal penthouse at the Apostolic Palace. Not for him the Red Prada slippers of his predecessor. His church has cracked down on showy displays of wealth. This fall, he suspended of the Bishop of Limburg, who spent millions of Euros renovating his residence.’ Francis has been relentless in talking about the church’s mission and need to serve the poor. Poverty and inequality used to be accepted as an order imposed by God. Today, Francis forthrightly pinned the blame on humans. The global economy has grown in every year since 1944 except one—2009. Broadly speaking, living standards are rising around the world, and hundreds of millions of people have been lifted out of abject poverty. Yet there are glaring, often violent deficiencies in the system. “Today everything comes under the laws of competition and the survival of the fittest, where the powerful feed upon the powerless,” he wrote. Francis has little use for those who argue that cutting taxes for the rich helps the poor. “Some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world,” “This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralised workings of the prevailing economic system.” As for money, “we calmly accept its dominion over ourselves and our societies.” There are too many worshippers of Mammon among us. “The worship of the ancient golden calf (cf. Ex. 32:1-35) has returned in a new and ruthless guise in the idolatry of money and the dictatorship of an impersonal economy lacking a truly human purpose. While the earnings of a minority are growing exponentially, so too is the gap separating the majority from the prosperity enjoyed by those happy few,” he writes. “This imbalance is the result of ideologies which defend the absolute autonomy of the marketplace and financial speculation. Consequently, they reject the right of states, charged with vigilance for the common good, to exercise any form of control.” He complains about excessive debt and “self-serving tax evasion” among the wealthy. And even as they rig the system, those at the top often “content themselves with blaming the poor and the poorer countries themselves for their trouble.” He calls for reforms that make finance subservient to industry and for the redistribution of wealth. “The Pope loves everyone, rich and poor alike, but he is obliged in the name of Christ to remind all that the rich must help, respect and promote the poor. The culture of prosperity deadens us; we are thrilled if the market offers us something new to purchase. In the meantime all those lives stunted for lack of opportunity seem a mere spectacle; they fail to move us.”

‘It’s a message we should all keep in mind whether we are Catholic or not’ from an article by Daniel Gross Nov 26 2013

Thank you. Neither the right nor the left has a claim on Christians.

Peace

Mark

[sutemi]

Left or right? Just more grounds for humans to separate themselves in to opposing factions, we are all brothers and we should help one another. After all it all goes back in the box, when will people give up their greed, ‘ there is enough for every ones need but not every ones greed’. You may know this vid but just in case you don’t I would like to share it with you. Take care

[markdohle]

Left or right? Just more grounds for humans to separate themselves in to opposing factions, we are all brothers and we should help one another. After all it all goes back in the box, when will people give up their greed, ‘ there is enough for every ones need but not every ones greed’. You may know this vid but just in case you don’t I would like to share it with you. Take care

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[/media]

Our cultures actually reflect back on who we are. That includes the good things as well. It is a shame we can't find some way to handle our desire for gold and power.

Peace

Mark