As Congress debates health insurance reform, Compassion & Choices is working to make end-of-life choice a centerpiece of any program that emerges.

We are working hard to reach our goal to make end-of-life choice a centerpiece of national health insurance reform.  The technical term for our goal is “Physician Order for Life Sustaining Treatment” (POLST).  In practical terms, it’s a new requirement for Medicare to provide coverage for the “conversation” – the dialog between doctor and patient about a patient’s wishes and options for end-of-life treatment.

POLST is one way to get these conversations started. POLST forms allow patients to document with their physician their end-of-life treatment wishes. A decade of research has demonstrated that orders for life-sustaining treatment effectively convey treatment preferences and guide medical personnel to provide or withhold interventions.  These orders contain the individual’s treatment decisions, signed by a physician, and follow the patient through all end-of-life health care settings.  Without these medical orders, emergency medical personnel may be required to provide treatments that aren’t consistent with the individual’s preferences.

Right now, Medicare does not cover this pivotal conversation.  As a result, most doctors don’t suggest it.  And most elderly patients don’t get the opportunity to talk about their questions, values and decisions about the kind of care they want at life’s end.

Winning Medicare coverage to fund the discussion will be transformational.  It will lay the groundwork for coverage in the other plans that will be part of health care reform, secure a valuable right for every American, and keep millions of people from being trapped in agonizing and futile medical interventions in their final weeks of life.

Read Compassion & Choices testimony to the Senate Finance Committee.