Do Canadians & British Have Lower Medical Spending Because they Let Sick Elderly People Die Sooner and Don't

Question

... give such people as intensive treatment as Americans do?

I've heard that elderly people in those countries are denied access to treatment in many cases because those countries figure that it's "too expensive" to spend vast sums of money on an older person who is likely to live only a few years longer.

Any truth or evidence?

Answer 1

Then how do the British and Canadians manage to live longer than Americans if they’re killing off the elderly? These arguments against universal health care are getting ridiculous.

Part of the reason for our high medical costs is that we spend more than 30% of our "health care" costs on administrative costs due to the health insurance bureaucracy and related paperwork.

Answer 2

Elderly people should be denied intensive treatments when they have little chance of survival. I work as a nurse on an Oncology floor and I know how bad the elderly really suffer when families don't want to let go. Ever see a 98 year old in respiratory failure and the family keeps telling you to do whatever possible? The doctors usually agree with the family and continue to make more money.

Today I had an 84 year old with a gangrene right leg, the left leg had already been amputated, and the patient had multiple skin sores over his body. He was extremely lethargic, refused to eat, and has both MRSA and VRE. Those are the resistant super bugs. The doctors actually suggested hospice care but the family refused. They said we were being cruel by suggesting we stop antibiotic therapies and dialysis. This man is severely ill and dying yet we are wasting resources on him to keep the family happy. Americans have the wrong attitude when it comes to sparing no costs for the elderly. Sometimes you need to learn it's better to let go and accept that people die. Wouldn't you want quality of life rather than a few extra miserable months or years?

Answer 3

Please look up the average age of death and you will find that American die earlier than both British and Canadians.

What the difference is that British and Canadian health care priorities in areas of benefit, whilst American priorities in profit.

Why should a old person be given a high dose of chemo when they have a low chance of survival? wouldn't the time and money be better spent saving a child who had a high rate of successful?

America has a higher rate of spending because people sue so much. This attitude is so bad that area of treatment have so few medical staff that they are dangerous. This is one of the reasons why American has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world.

Please look at the WHO ranking and how they are made up. The UK isn't very good, we know there are lots of problems, but we are still ranked above the USA.

Answer 4

I work with the elderly. They are given more unecessary treatments and medication then they can stand. Often they get to a point where they say enough. Example. An 84 year old on dialysis. It made him miserable. He stopped the treatment and went into a hospaice. He died quietly a week later.
I'm not sure where you got this idea from. But no I don't think this is the case.

Answer 5

Across the board, Canadians and British citizens have longer life spans than Americans . . . so I imagine you'll get a lot of anecdotal evidence about someone's poor Canadian grandfather but the answer is . . . not true.

Answer 6

The Hippocratic Oath is still, as strong as ever in the UK my friend, as it is in Canada and. USA.