Cutting Hospice Care is Poor Judgement

Florida may be following in the foot steps of South Carolina, eliminating coverage for hospice care for Medicaid only patients. Of course, lawmakers "regret" having to make "difficult" decisions like this in a time of economic crisis. Well, listen up lawmakers...You don't!

I'm utterly perplexed that any state could consider cutting hospice benefits as a way to save money. Multiple studies have shown that hospice care actually SAVES our health care system money at an average of $2,309 per hospice beneficiary. Think about, lawmakers... If someone doesn't have hospice care and has a distressing symptom, where are they going to go? Probably the emergency department of their local hospital. The bill the hospital will send you for their care will be a heck of a lot higher than the one hospice will send you. This is not rocket science people!

To quote Don H. Taylor, Jr, the lead author of one study showing the cost effectiveness of hospice, “Given that hospice has been widely demonstrated to improve quality of life of patients and families...the Medicare program appears to have a rare situation whereby something that improves quality of life also appears to reduce costs." We know that if hospice has proven to save Medicare so much money, it will also save state sponsored Medicaid programs money as well.

Our United States lawmakers have a history of spending our money unwisely with their "pork barrel" projects and such, but this kind of decision is not only financially unsound but morally and ethically wrong. No one should be forced to suffer at the end of their life with no support, nor should they be forced to die in a hospital just to receive pain and symptom management. It's one thing to make poor financial choices that don't negatively impact the health of our citizens (i.e. the "bridge to nowhere") but when these decisions result in pain and suffering of millions of dying Americans, you've gone to far.

I encourage all of you to speak up about this issue. Contact your lawmakers and make sure that hospice is a benefit that stays.

More on Hospice Care:
What is Hospice Care?
4 Myths about Hospice
Does Choosing Hospice Mean I'm Giving Up Hope?
What are the Advantages and Disadvantages of Hospice Care?