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The American Family Decisions Foundation
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The American Family Decisions Foundation is dedicated to achieving real savings in the American health care system by promoting the concept of rational health care utilization. President Barack Obama stated that 60% to 80% of a person’s lifetime health care expenses are made during the last 2 years of their life. This fact underscores a number of ills within our health care system that need to be addressed and resolved in order to reduce and control health care costs without reducing the quality of care for that patient or the rest of society.
The Foundation is dedicated to achieving these cost savings by incentivizing rational health care decision making and system utilization. As the articles found on this web site will attest, there are a number of situations that have evolved within our system that lead patients and doctors to make irrational health care decisions that significantly inflate the cost of care to that patient without meaningfully adding to their lifespan or their quality of life. In many cases the actual wishes of the patient with regard to their health care decisions go un-regarded and unheeded.
A primary contributor to the cost bloat when a family is confronted with the health care crisis of a loved one is emotional overreaction when confronted with the need to make important decisions. The family is faced with on the spot decision points about complex issues with a minimum of information and time to assimilate the facts available. In this vulnerable position the tendency is to "do the best thing" for the loved one. However, that which seems to be "the best thing" at that very moment may be, in fact, the worst possible course of action, especially when the true best interests of the loved one are taken in to account.
This vulnerability is created by a number of factors:
· Lack of advance planning by the family and/or the family member
· Lack of prior communication about quality of life and dignity of death beliefs by the patient and their family
· Emotional vulnerability and lack of preparation by the family decision makers
· Futile Care regimens
· Emotionally driven care decisions contrary to the facts of the case
· Legally motivated care decisions and regimens to protect the doctors, hospitals and systems from predatory patients and families
· Doctors and practices driving up billings by undertaking futile care regimens, tests, surgeries and other practices that do not contribute to the wellness of the patient
· Fraud
The goal of the American Family Decisions Foundation is to incentivize patients and families to plan ahead and communicate with one another so that when that inevitable moment in life arrives with a health care crisis, everyone is prepared for it with an idea as to what the needs and wants of the patient are and the formalities required to successfully guide treatment and protect the wishes and needs of the patient are in place. Just a few of these formalities are:
· Living Will
· A family Trust
· Do Not Resuscitate Statement
· Advance Directive Statement
· A statement proclaiming the desire to make care and regimen decisions based on achieving "quality of life" and "dignity in death".
The lynchpin of the concept proposed is that a great deal of the "care" given to a patient suffering an "end of life" medical crisis is meant well, but serves nothing in actually extending the patient’s life, promoting their quality of life or protecting their dignity in death. The way our system operates promotes these "over-expenditures" without qualifying their true value to the patient, and many times, without factoring in the actual wishes of the patient.
An Incentive to do the "Right Thing"?
As the case histories on this page attest, not everyone and not every family falls into the black abyss of "the system". Some do stand back and evaluate the situation and take paths that are carved by the principles of quality of life and dignity in death. Most often, when that path is chosen, tremendous costs and patient trauma are avoided in the process. Herein is the basis for the savings, and, as a result, the incentive. The American Family Decisions Foundation proposes that a percentage of those savings achieved by the use of "rational care" principles be rebated back to the estate of the patient’s family. The distribution of funds would be driven by the Estate Plan and Family Trust. In order to qualify for the incentive the patient and family must have addressed these formalities in advance of the health crisis at hand. By having these plans in place, and implementing these plans at the required time, both the insurance companies and health care systems involved will realize significant cost savings. It seems only right to share a percentage of those savings with that family.
The American Family Decisions Foundation believes that this is an idea whose time has come. While the Foundation professes a nonpartisan position, the heated dialog concerning the fixing of our national healthcare system and trimming its bloated cost structure is largely without a factual savings basis. This proposal addresses the facts unemotionally and offers a compelling solution that will actually reduce the cost of health care, enable additional resources within the system without additional cost, and specifically address the issue of the patient’s quality of life and dignity in death. This is the one "win – win" proposal on the table and it needs YOUR support. You may be a beneficiary of this movement if you help now. As the President has stated: "The time is Now". Make your voice heard.
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American Family Decisions Foundation | PO Box 383 | Waterford VA 20197