La Crosse is not only a sport but a city in Wisconsin. Who knew? Well, it seems they are gaining some infamy for being the birthplace of the so-called "death panel". There is a nice article about it in the Washington Post that I recommend you read. In it you fill find that "the town's biggest hospital, Gundersen Lutheran, has long been a pioneer in ensuring that the care provided to patients in their final months complies with their wishes". Even better, they were able to get Medicare to pay doctors for having these open discussions. Amazing. And yet, Sarah Palin came up with the brilliant concept of "death panels" in order to scare the elderly. What an idiot. All the doctors are doing in La Cross is getting advanced directives from the patients which are power-of-attorney forms that protect physicians and family members against liability. And that is bad why? Here is some great numbers:
- More than 90 percent of people in town have directives when they die, double the national average.
- Gundersen patients spend 13.5 days on average in the hospital in their final two years of life, at an average cost of $18,000. That is in contrast with big-city hospitals such as the University of California at Los Angeles medical centers (31 days and $59,000), the University of Miami Hospital (39 days, $64,000) and New York University's Langone Medical Center (54 days, $66,000).
As a result of so-called death panels, the patients have their OWN wishes complied with and save the system money. Seems to me that this is good thing for the patient and society.
On a side note, former House speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) was open and public about how he was very much appreciative of the end-of-life care his father-in-law received at Gundersen. That was until politics got in the way and he is now critical of the provision to pay doctors for end-of-life discussions. Unbelievable.
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