[LUCKY] SEVERSON: Dr. Weinberg says the decisions about the ethics of distributive justice for society as a whole are often much more difficult when the doctor is meeting with a patient one-on-one.<\/p>\n
DR. [GLORIA] WEINBERG: The health care dollars, an inordinate amount, go to taking care of people in the last 6 months of their lives. But how do you know when those last 6 months are? You have a person who has worked all their life, paid taxes, done very well, and now they are 80, and they have a heart attack. That may be the person who lives 10 or 15 more years. Are we going to say no just because of age? That\u2019s a very, very slippery slope.<\/p>\n
SEVERSON: There is a huge ethical discussion about who should make these end-of-life decisions\u201d\u201dthe patient, the family, doctors, the government? Brian Keeley says some decisions are easier to make. For instance, Medicare should only reimburse for treatments and drugs that are known to work.<\/p>\n
KEELEY: It ought to be evidence-based. If something is proven not to work, I don\u2019t think the federal government ought to be paying for it. I don\u2019t think anybody ought to be paying for it, except for the private patient.<\/p>\n
SEVERSON: Dr. Weinberg says too many patients receive expensive treatments and surgery in their final years that very likely won\u2019t prolong their life.<\/p>\n