Time for solutions, Vestal

Shawn Vestal’s articles eloquently express his anger at what is happening to a lot of people, but few suggestions as to how to fix the problems. Today’s problem was the rising cost of long-term care and his suggestion, as usual, was to shoot the insurance companies. They are just the messengers. It would be more productive to find out why costs are going up so rapidly.

Nearly 30 percent of health costs are incurred during a patient’s last year of life. This country needs a rational discussion of what we get from that expenditure. How much is being spent prolonging the lives of people when there is no rational expectation that they can recover any reasonable functionality?

Take a person in a rest home going through the last stages of Alzheimer’s who can no longer recognize anyone, and cannot provide any help with his care. He quits eating, so the doctors insert a feeding tube. He pulls it out and his family will not allow the doctors to put it back in.

If the patient does not have someone to speak for him, is reinsertion the default treatment? Why would doctors do this? Shawn should start asking these questions.

W.C. Rust

Wallace