World News Insights
1-3 Minute Gist
Search, personalize, or simply browse. Follow the world around you from gist and context to insights.
Who we are | Our Credo | Ways of using Lyrarc | FAQ | Send Feedback | First Letter From the Editor
Sign up. It's free and easy to use
Create an account
to personalize your feed of articles and topics.
All Topics Article
Taking Responsibility for Death
Keywords:
Susan Jaccoby brings up a major issue facing healthcare in America from personal experience. A third of the Medicare budget, she says, goes to the last year of life, and a third of this goes to the care in the last month. At the same time public opinion polls show Americans see the problem being too much medical intervention rather than too little. Especially when there is no hope except to prolong life for the patient with an highly deteriorated qulaity of life for a few months or a year, doing no service to the patient or future generations who may see their basic services cut when they most need it as a result of the unaffordable spiralling cost of Medicare. A Pew Research Center poll in 2006, shows 22 percent say a doctor should not always make efforts to save a sick person's life, and 70 percent believe that patients should be allowed to die in some situations, when it only prolongs life for a few months for instance and patients live in pain. The problem only gets worse in future years as an estimated 8.5 million Americans are expected to be over 85 years in 2030 with these same choices facing patients, their families, Medicare and the country.
Baby boomers, changing demographics in the U.S. and Medicare, Social Security programs
01/01/2011
In 2 decades the number of people on Medicare is expected to grow from 47 million in 2010 to 80 million in 2030. At the same time the proportion of the voting age population that is over 65 will go up in that period to 26% in 2030 from 17% in 2010. Seniors who vote heavily Republican, and middle aged people who expect to join the senior group will resist any changes to Medicare and Social Security benefits.
Grouped Articles
Demography and the economy: As boomers wrinkle
Economist 01/01/2011
Wall Street Journal 01/08/2011
Wall Street Journal 03/03/2011
A Ponzi scheme that should be fixed - The Washington Post
Washington Post 09/16/2011
Carolyn Hax: What happens when parents go broke during their golden years - The Washington Post
Washington Post 11/18/2011
Even Critics of Safety Net Increasingly Depend on It
New York Times 02/11/2012
Escalating cost of Medicare with a rising deficit in the U.S.
06/15/2009
Grouped Articles
Bayonne Medical Center Has Highest U.S. Billing Rates
New York Times 05/16/2013
Doctors Chafe As Medicare Cuts Loom
Wall Street Journal 06/16/2010
Small Group of Doctors Are Biggest Medicare Billers
Wall Street Journal 06/01/2015
BusinessWeek 12/10/2009
10 Ways to Cut Health-Care Costs Right Now
BusinessWeek 11/12/2009
Preventing the Next Financial Crisis
Wall Street Journal 10/23/2009
Medicare Reform Efforts.
06/17/2009
Grouped Articles
Doctors Chafe As Medicare Cuts Loom
Wall Street Journal 06/16/2010
New York Times 12/18/2009
Toward a Different Fiscal Future
Wall Street Journal 02/08/2010
BusinessWeek 12/10/2009
Preventing the Next Financial Crisis
Wall Street Journal 10/23/2009
Economist 10/15/2009
How doctors face the choice of prolonging life without quality
02/25/2012
The need to find closure to life in an atmosphere of comfort, peace and home, and how hospitals cannot provide this. The better choice of doctors who choose quality over quantity of life- when the odds of surviving move up dramatically, say from 5% to 15% by using technological advances, but are still very low. The issue is also one of spiralling costs for an aging populaton in the U.S., when one of the options being considered is dismantling of Medicare as it was known in the years since 1950, or cutting Medicare services when they are most needed.
Grouped Articles
Wall Street Journal 02/25/2012
Taking Responsibility for Death
New York Times 03/30/2012
Efforts against the waste, fraud, and misuse of public money in the Medicare system
01/02/2011
Estimates of the wasted dollars are as high as $125 billion, at a time of severe budget deficits and austerity measures in government.
Grouped Articles
Cuts Would Only Shift Health-Care Costs
Wall Street Journal 07/13/2011
Bayonne Medical Center Has Highest U.S. Billing Rates
New York Times 05/16/2013
Small Slice of Doctors Account for Big Chunk of Medicare Costs
Wall Street Journal 04/09/2014
Small Group of Doctors Are Biggest Medicare Billers
Wall Street Journal 06/01/2015
Issa says Obama administration is 'one of most corrupt'
Washington Post 01/02/2011
Why Medicare Can't Catch the Fraudsters
BusinessWeek 01/06/2011
Expert opinion on Medicare reform.
06/14/2009
Grouped Articles
Small Group of Doctors Are Biggest Medicare Billers
Wall Street Journal 06/01/2015
Martin Feldstein - Obama's Health-Care Reform Plan Is Not the Answer
Washington Post 07/28/2009
New York Times 07/31/2009
Obama’s Pledge to Tax Only the Rich Can’t Pay for Everything, Analysts Say
New York Times 08/01/2009
Economist 08/27/2009
Economist 10/15/2009
Health care costs, terminal illnesses with poor quality of life, and prolonging life in the U.S.
02/25/2012
The cost to Medicare of prolonging life when there is little or no hope and quality of life has deteriorated upto a point where the patient gains little from extending life for a few months. Estimates show a large part of Medicare, as much as third takes place in the last year of life, and a large part of that in the last month. With the option of cutting Medicare services or dismantling Medicare as it was known in the years since 1950 because of spiralling costs, this is an issue that needs to be addressed for Medicare solutions.
Grouped Articles
Wall Street Journal 02/25/2012
Taking Responsibility for Death
New York Times 03/30/2012
Steven Pearlstein: Eat your broccoli, Justice Scalia - The Washington Post
Washington Post 04/01/2012
We took a different way to help millions around the world build educated informed mindsets that affects and shapes their lives. For a future that is open, global and digital, with everyone having access to high quality information. We believe in the renewal of America, renewal of Europe, the renewal of India, the rest of Asia, Latin America and Africa. The renewal of our supply chains, health, education, infrastructure, as we rebuild our countries after the pandemic. Literacy and knowledge we believe cannot thrive and grow in a world of web bots, web crawlers, or AI. This requires human curiosity, human learning, and human imagination. We take as inspiration the saying- “One has to be free, and as broad as sky. One has to have a mind that is crystal clear, only then can truth shine in it.” Every contribution whether big or small is precious- in this crisis and ahead.
Support Lyrarc from as small as $1
Terms and Conditions | Copyright Policy | Privacy Policy | Contact Us