Age, Wealth, and Medicare
Should Medicare pay big bucks to extend people's lives past 100?
I've been noodling that question since Friday, when the New York Times ran a story headlined, "Rise Seen in Medical Efforts to Treat the Very Old." The story focused on a woman who got a pacemaker and defibrillator a month before her 100th birthday, apparently courtesy of Medicare. Estimated cost: $35,000. The doctor who did the surgery "said that he has implanted about two dozen devices like hers in patients 90 or older over the past five years," according to reporter Anemona Hartocollis. Other doctors said they've done similar procedures on patients in their mid- to late-‘90s.
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I've been noodling that question since Friday, when the New York Times ran a story headlined, "Rise Seen in Medical Efforts to Treat the Very Old." The story focused on a woman who got a pacemaker and defibrillator a month before her 100th birthday, apparently courtesy of Medicare. Estimated cost: $35,000. The doctor who did the surgery "said that he has implanted about two dozen devices like hers in patients 90 or older over the past five years," according to reporter Anemona Hartocollis. Other doctors said they've done similar procedures on patients in their mid- to late-‘90s.
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