Some lawmakers said they feared that some of those patients might end their lives prematurely to remove the physical or financial burden on their families “... as a clinician working at the fringes of life, I heard my patients frequently say, ‘I don’t want to be a burden,’ or ‘I’d rather the money went to the grandchildren than on my care.’”
The following surprises me:
⦿ In contrast to the view expressed by that lawmaker, the impulse to have money go to heirs instead of to expensive terminal care seems like a reasonable one
⦿ In the American system I'd imagine that there would be financial consequences for the family in such decisions, but I had imagined that was not the case in the UK's National Health Service.
Social care is not covered by the NHS - so the costs argument is about nursing homes etc, not actual medical care or hospital stays (which is an additional reason for the NHS mess, patients staying longer than needed as not having suitable residential care to be moved to)
The NYT surprised me with this report on the assisted dying issue:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/29/world/europe/uk-assisted-dying-bill-vote.html
Some lawmakers said they feared that some of those patients might end their lives prematurely to remove the physical or financial burden on their families “... as a clinician working at the fringes of life, I heard my patients frequently say, ‘I don’t want to be a burden,’ or ‘I’d rather the money went to the grandchildren than on my care.’”
The following surprises me:
⦿ In contrast to the view expressed by that lawmaker, the impulse to have money go to heirs instead of to expensive terminal care seems like a reasonable one
⦿ In the American system I'd imagine that there would be financial consequences for the family in such decisions, but I had imagined that was not the case in the UK's National Health Service.
Social care is not covered by the NHS - so the costs argument is about nursing homes etc, not actual medical care or hospital stays (which is an additional reason for the NHS mess, patients staying longer than needed as not having suitable residential care to be moved to)