Advocate for CMS Coverage of Services!

I recently read Jim Sabin's Health Care Ethics Blog. He posted an interesting comment on advocating CMS coverage of services.

I wasn't able to comment on his blog. I kept being dis-connected from the internet when I attempted, so I posted my thoughts here:


Jim Sabin's comment about the man who wished for money to be spent on younger people reminded me of a sad story when I was younger, which I think was fiction. It may have been part of a school assignment in middle school. It consisted of a group of diverse people who were stuck on a submarine. There were only enough resources to save 50% of the people on the submarine. The question or problem was to decide who’d be saved.

I can’t remember all of the facts from this story. It may have been a movie I saw when I was younger. I do recall a person who was elderly willingly sacrificing himself. He had the same “internal moral” argument that a younger person who had much more life ahead of him should be selected first.
I wouldn’t want to be the person to make a decision for other people. I’m fairly healthy and happy 30-year-old man. I’d want a younger person to make it over myself. And I don’t think I could live with myself if I left anyone behind. What if the people who were elderly were someone I knew and loved like my own parents?
I’m not very keen on politics and funding.

I do my best to keep up on updates from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) because I’m a Recreational Therapist and patient advocate. I advocate that patients receive Recreational Therapy (RT) services when medically necessary, evidenced-based to be beneficial, and ordered by a physician. RT is most often provided in three in-patient settings: skilled nursing, rehabilitation, and psychiatric.
My big point is: There has to be an ethical and cost-effective way to assure all people have access to services (including the person you commented on with the lung issues). It reminds me of a neighbor friend who is retired. She has little income and no insurance. She could purchase insurance, but it would take all of her income because she has a pre-existing condition (a leg problem). She can’t go back to work for long periods of time or for many jobs because the pain from the leg would be too much to handle.

There must be a solution for people in this group. There are many more people who are retired, without insurance, and with little income. There must be a way to assure that people in this group get coverage and services, too.
I hope you’ll post more thoughts and ideas on this topic in the future.

Your friend,