From previous diaries, many of you know me as Mrs. Lupin. You may also know that we moved my (now) 85-year-old mother over here to France to live with us almost 2 years ago, after the sudden death of her husband.
Bob had liver cancer and died in about 6 weeks. His treatment at the hands of the free-market medical system was frankly appalling. His chemo therapy was disallowed as being medically unnecessary; after an appeal, the approval for the chemo came the day of his funeral.
His mental state took a huge nose dive practically overnight and Mom was completely unable to care for him. He couldn't get up off the couch to go to the bathroom, for heaven's sake. So, against his will, she called an ambulance to take him to the hospital.
He didn't want to be there and kept begging to go home. The nurses (maybe doctors) asked him how he felt, he said, "Fine," so they told my mother he was in too good a shape to remain in the hospital! They kicked him out to the "hospice" across the street, which wanted a $6,000 CASH deposit on a Saturday afternoon and wouldn't take a credit card. Mom doesn't exactly keep that kind of cash lying around, so finally, they relented and took him anyway.
He was in such "good shape" that he died on Monday night.
So, flash forward to now. Mom is here, fully covered under French Social Security; her meds for long term conditions (diabetes, high blood pressure) are covered 100%, she has a fully covered medical bed because she has trouble getting in and out of bed. Even her ibuprofen are covered by insurance. Every time she needs something, she asks if insurance covers it.
A couple of weeks ago she wanted to talk about what is done here vis-a-vis living wills. When we went to the doctor for her regular check-up I asked him and he told me that it's much more relaxed here, all discussed between doctor and patient and patient's family, etc. I explained it to Mom, who was relieved and reiterated that she did NOT want to be kept alive on machines if it came to that, etc.
So, imagine my surprise when she told a visiting American how horrible these Death Panels were and what a scandal it all was! Our friend escaped as quickly as possible and told me about the conversation.
God, I hate FAUX and what it does to people. She really believes that any new medical plan is going to kill old people! It really drives me crazy.