A health care power of attorney that prohibits the use of antibiotics or other life extending drugs once dementia has set in would take care of a lot. Most elderly people live beyond what they would choose because doctors are required to do their best to extend life of a patient with dementia absent a health care directive. For example, if I hit a certain level of dementia (can’t remember my kids names, my own birthday etc.) I no longer want anything other than painkillers. For many people, that would mean discontinuing high blood pressure medication, cholesterol lowering meds, but it would also mean not treating pneumonia and/or UTIs, which are very common in the elderly.
FWIW – Long term care insurance doesn’t kick in for 3-4 months after certain triggering events. In the case of things like strokes and heart attacks, the patient is either dead or significantly recovered before that period is up. Plus, unless they have a lot of help, an elderly disabled person would find it very difficult to supply all of the information necessary to prove that they qualify for their benefits. All that being said, my mom is in a skilled nursing facility and her LTC policy plus SS pays almost all of her expenses. I know she would not like to live the way she is living – but her “living will” or whatever it’s called was sort of vague. So she will “live” for a while without really living.
