Attorney
What can you do to avoid a health care crisis with your loved ones?
According to a National Health and Aging Trends Study, over 25% of Medicare beneficiaries have not done any advance care planning. Over 2,000 Medicare beneficiaries responded to surveys about advance care planning and almost 30% of those people had had no discussions with medical providers or loved ones about:
- End of life wishes
- Advance directives
- Who they trust to make health decisions when they can’t
Of those surveyed:
- 1,156 had end of life discussions
- 997 assigned a health care agent
- 1,027 completed an advance directive
Only 40% of those surveyed had completed all three elements of an advance care plan. The rest of those individuals may be placing their wishes at risk and placing undue burdens on their families by not planning.
Avoiding Health Care Crisis Situations
These survey results serve as a reminder of how important it is to prepare early for end of life issues. Not only does advance planning ensure that your wishes are made known, planning also relieves your family members of the burden of trying to make decisions they may be ill equipped to make.
Debilitating illness and accidents can happen at any time and affect people of any age. Taking just a little time to create an advance care plan, or to review your existing plan, can help avoid a health care crisis situation. Most effective advance care plans include the creation of an advance health care directive and any other documents necessary to ensure your end of life wishes are known and respected.
What is an Advance Health Care Directive?
An advance health care directive is a document that enables you to assign an agent, or someone who can make medical decisions for you if you become incapacitated. The document also lets your doctors know how you want to be treated if you are dying or are otherwise unable to make medical decisions about emergency treatment. Typical things addressed in advance health care directives include:
- When to discontinue life prolonging measures
- Withholding of food, water or other lifesaving measures
- Organ and tissue donation wishes
- Desire for burial or cremation
- Any religious or cultural preferences
Having the proper legal document can enable your providers to seamlessly orchestrate your care while avoiding potentially difficult conversations with loved ones.
Let Us Help
Horizon Elder Law & Estate Planning has helped hundreds of clients and their families with advance care planning. Let us help you navigate the advance care planning process too. Call today at 925-224-1185 to schedule a consultation.