“No need Doctor…”

“No need Doctor, He’s too old anyways..” an oft-heard statement outside the ER rooms of hospitals.

“I couldn’t quite live with the idea that one has to pay from his / her own pocket for his health. That is why I moved to the UK” said my friend Bavand, who was then in his final year of residency in Geriatrics.

This may come as a surprise to many. But yes, there are countries that take over the burden of your sick older relative. The terms and conditions may differ, but the State or Country supports you.

Consider a 50 year old who has to provide for his sick 80-year-old father with heart disease, kidney problems, and a lung infection now requiring ICU admission. Each day in the ICU could cost anything from 20 – 80 k / day spent. Add the number of days the son has to take an absence from work to tend to hospital affairs.

Add a sick mother at home.

Add a child’s examinations at home. Plus, the maid not turning up.

More often than not, when it comes to spending for the hospital expenses of the older patient, the middle-aged son or daughter is challenged. With a strong possibility of prolonged hospital admission and possible adverse outcome, it’s easy to choose the easy path – what we doctors, often term as the path of least resistance- – To give up.

If that comes from another family member or worse another healthcare provider, it seals the decision.

We may have the fastest trains, or the tallest statues or the most advanced technology, but if we do not provide for the health of our aging population, then we have lost it.

The least you can do is get your parents insured.

Or vote for better heath care.

Or give up “He is too old anyways.. No need Doctor..”