This was the problem my parents and aunts and uncles faced. Here was a man who could not make decisions for himself anymore. A man who needed pushing to get better and survive. They could never fully accept the new parental role that they had inherited. They still wanted to treat him like an adult, but he wasn't acting like an adult. The doctors didn't help. Until the end, they kept asking him questions about decisions he couldn't really make.
The whole situation was sad. Because part of the reason he was acting like a child was because his body was breaking, he was confined to bed, and I am sure he felt like a child but with the mind and experience of an adult.
Most of the health care policy proposals I see are based on the idea that decisions need to be taken away from people like my grandfather and my parents and given to some government or insurance authority. My experience suggests this might be a good thing. It might make my life easier when my parents get old.
But it also scares me. Because I see too many fine lines, and I don't think the essential problems are being addressed. The problem is information and fixed costs. I have addressed these issues in the past, here and here.
I guess what I am saying is that as sad and discouraging as my grandfather's situation was, I don't know if I would have had it any other way.
2 comments:
"Most of the health care policy proposals I see are based on the idea that decisions need to be taken away from people like my grandfather and my parents and given to some government or insurance authority."
I guess I see most plans in terms of moral hazard and adverse selection. It is hard to imagine a market for health insurance working. Taking away decisions is a stopgap to hold together a broken market. If you deprive everyone of choice by having universal care, it will limit costs, but whether it improves welfare is questionable.
In a mixed-up sort of way, I agree that a "free" market for health care can't work. But I don't think universal health care will be any better.
It isn't necessarily about welfare to me but about unknowns and innovations. I think it gets back to this system thing. I really don't like government intervention. I don't want to live in a country world where someone else value's my health care tradeoffs. As much I bitch and complain about my inability to make decisions, I still want those decisions.
I guess health care is becoming a purely political-ideological issue.
Post a Comment