Because we live in a very mobile, and global, society, people find it more and more important to execute end-of-life documents. Wills and trusts certainly are important for a family. Even more important perhaps is to take the time to Advance Health Care Directive. This is something you do not only for your family, but first for yourself.
Why?: We are more likely than not to be hospitalized before we die.
In California, the Advance Health Care Directive is the document which allows you to take charge of your own health care, for now and for the future.
For the same reason, because we live a very long time nowadays, I ask my clients who wish to execute an Advance Health Care Directive to be a little more specific:
If they were to become terminally ill, would they wish to continue to be treated with medications, operations,… at all costs, until their last hour, or would they prefer at some point to be able to say Enough!, and made comfortable? At home whenever possible.
The recent Healthcare Reform makes, through Medicare, more in-home services available to persons who are acutely, or terminally ill.
While it is not “necessary” to include details of the kinds of care you would like at the end of your life in your Advance Health Care Directive, at the same time that you are making plans about whom you would like to have your antique furniture if something were to happen to you, why not give this also some thought?
Information about the range of services, including in-home services, which may be paid for by Basic Medicare is contained in the following article.
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