If society suddenly decides it's OK for people to die if they can not afford life saving medical care, that could change. I don't see that kind of social change taking place any time soon, hence we have to make the ground rules even for all. A fair playing field.
Well, you seem more in touch with modern medicine than I am. So help me out here. What are you describing as life saving care? I ask, because I come from the bottom of the socio-economic ladder, and nobody I grew up with has these expectations you describe.
As an example, let me tell you about my grandma's death. Sensitive readers should skip to the next post.
In 1997, my grandma was 91, had lung cancer, a shiny new hip(provided by Medicaid), and in her assisted living apt, she had a heart attack.
My sister and I saw her the next morning, she had a temp pacemaker in, and she was drugged to the gills. The docs were concerned about her kidneys. She had a catheter in, and we were trying to get her to eat ice chips, watching the bag for signs her kidneys were working.
After the first day, I cornered her doc, and asked about getting her on dialysis. He said dialysis was generally long term, once you started it, you rarely stopped. And that he couldn't justify putting a 91 year old woman with lung cancer, on Medicaid, on dialysis.
This is a level of honesty I doubt is available anymore, but this was 1997, and in a former VA hospital.
I went back to the ice chips. She spent the next 2 days unconscious, or delirious. When she was talking, most of it didn't make sense, but she was clear about wanting to die. I don't know what kidney failure feels like, but it sure looked unpleasant. In the middle of the night, the 3rd night we were there, a nurse came in and talked to us. They didn't have any real hope left, it was all about pain management, now. Then after her morphine, she said something about how she could give her more, if we wanted. You know, to help her along. The nurse gave her 3 more shots, and she was dead 20 minutes later.
My take away was that my grandma was euthenized because she was on Medicaid. The only part of this that seemed wrong was that they waited as long as they did.
I've told this story a few times since, and there is a variety of reactions. Some get pissed about the "extra pain management", some talk about suing the doc who wouldn't start dialysis. But I expect that the last 2 days after she started begging to die would be the only part that would have bothered her. She was tough.
I have known plenty of folks who get broken, and don't get fixed. I was working with one this last weekend. I honestly don't know many people who have this expectation of free medical, because they are poor. They know they will get minimum treatment, and shown the door.
I think this
If society suddenly decides it's OK for people to die if they can not afford life saving medical care, that could change. I don't see that kind of social change taking place any time soon, hence we have to make the ground rules even for all. A fair playing field.
is just a story middle class folks tell themselves as justification for a system that meets their needs, and allows them to feel better about deflecting the costs, because they do it for "the Poor."
But poor folk know better. It not their needs the system is set up to meet.
