Health Care

There are several good letters to the editor this morning. This is my favorite.

"Sarah Palin has really gone off the deep end this time. "Death panels"?

I work in the senior care field, everything from home care to hospice, and I can attest to the need for advance health care consultations.

---

---

There is nothing worse than seeing 80-year-olds come home from the hospital incapacitated and angry because they were forced to receive treatments that they will never recover from.

Why? Because they lack an advance health care directive stating their wishes. If they want to be kept alive at all costs, financial, physical , emotional and mental, that can be spelled out in the directive, but in my experience, most do not want this and trust their children to respect their wishes.

Unfortunately, in the heat of the moment, those wishes often go to the wayside because of a difference in understanding or emotions. This is where the planning makes all the difference between a peaceful passing and a long, drawn-out and painful one.

This proposal needs to stay in the president's health care plan; it is the right thing to do for our seniors and their families."

I find it very interesting that people are making such a big issue about a government run health care program when they will be in one at age 65. It is known as Medicare.

Medicare is a single-payer plan which needs to be expanded to everyone and properly funded. Then and only then will we have proper health care coverage in this country.