Living Wills

The recent buzz around President Obama’s provision for payment for end-of-life counseling has sparked a lot of interest in the subject. This can only be a good thing. For some reason, this was the subject of some misunderstanding in the senior population and the press. However, the fact that the topic is being discussed and has come into the light presents an opportunity for families to talk about                       

•  appointing someone to make health care decisions for you if you are unable to make them yourself; and

• the decision as to what type of intervention you want in the event that you are ever in a persistent vegetative state with no hope of returning to any meaningful quality of life.

Despite the large outreach efforts that the state and local bar associations make to educate the public about the importance of thinking about and executing health care and end-of-life planning documents, most people I speak to have not done so. Most of my friends have not done so. Many of my elder law colleagues have not done so!

I view taking on the process of planning for how you want your health care handled and making hard decisions in advance to be an act of love for your family. Neglecting to address your eventual health care and end-of-life choices is much the same as not doing a will. If you die without a will and without having your finances in order, your family has to jump through all kinds of hoops to figure out what you have and then put everything in order and administer your Estate. If you become incapacitated without having made some basic decisions about your care, your family has to figure it out for you. This is usually extremely hard on your loved ones emotionally and causes guilt and heartache. End-of-life decisions are hard enough to make for yourself. Making them for someone else is often overwhelming.

Hopefully, all the excitement and controversy sparked by Obama’s health care proposal will inspire families to have these conversation and get proactive in doing some crucial planning – for the sake of their loved ones.