Aging Options Blog : Washington Estate Planning Lawyer & Attorney : Rajiv Nagaich : Aging Options Law Firm : WA Elder Law, Wills & Trusts

How can a Power of Attorney help keep you out of a nursing home?

A  Power of Attorney is more powerful that you think and a document that is not given much thought. To clarify, a power of attorney is a document that you sign to name a person of your choice, who you wish to appoint as your surrogate to act on your behalf should you be unable to act on your own behalf. This may be because you are out of town or are physically or mentally incapacitated to a point that you cannot attend to your own affairs. 

Think about how you and I decide who to name as our surrogates. We simply choose the people we love and trust the most without giving much thought to the types of decisions they will have to make. In reality the most difficult decision our surrogates will make is to step in when they see us slowing down in life. 

We say to them that if you see that we cannot manage our own affairs, we trust you that you will make all the right decisions, including the decision about our housing needs. And when our surrogates find us not being able to address our own needs independently they will turn to the medical community for help. And our medical community views nursing homes and assisted living facilities like the rest of us view McDonalds. Cheap, convenient and available. Little attention is given to the effects and quality of the food.  Same way, the doctors and medical providers generally do not explore the issue in any detail because institutional care is an easy fix. 

This is the reason why many of us end up in nursing homes though we could well be able to stay at home. So, what you want your power of attorney to do is not just to give responsibility to your surrogate, but also to direct that your surrogate use the resources in your estate to seek out the assistance of a qualified geriatric care manager who can provide your surrogate options that should be considered about your care needs. Including whether you could stay at home and if so what services would be needed to accomplish the objective; if you could not stay at home what alternatives exist between home and nursing home and associated costs. 

With this information your surrogate could make the final determination, but at least it will be based on a thorough review of the facts by an objective independent professional. In the end, you are not a burden on your surrogate and your quality of life is much improved because of this directive. Not to mention the analysis of whether Medicare or Medicaid could cover some of the costs. 

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"And they are ignorant, some people are, saying I talk about the same thing that the administration is talking about - so I must be part of the whole gestapo regime, which is not the case.

"This is nonsense. My wife looks at it, and she's afraid for our safety now."

I am glad that no protest actually materialized at my seminar in Bellevue. Maybe because I-405 was closed due to construction work....

"What we need to be doing is coming together to help people age better and live better." "I have no skin in the game as to whether the administration does with the health care plan. It will be what it will be."

There is one element of Obama's plan that's like a living will - it lets you decide your own fate if you're incapacitated.

Opponents say the plan calls for "death panels" that would make that decision, but today the president denied again that there is such a thing in place. I will encourage people not to wait for the government to make that decision for us. Be responsible and act today, make your own decision and have a living will in place for yourself.

KOMO News was kind enough to interview me on the subject.

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THE TRUTH ABOUT MANDATORY CONSULTATIONS UNDER THE PROPOSED HEALTH CARE BILL.

In the name of the country, political opportunists on both sides are distorting the provisions contained in the health care Bill (HR 3200). Both sides bent on scaring consumers of their points of view into believing something that is not true. 

On the Left you have the debate which suppresses the critical issues of health care: who will administer the health care benefits under the so called public option? What impact will the public option have to the health insurance industry? 

On the Right you have pundits scaring people into believing that the proposed Health Care Bill contains provisions making euthanasia legal and health care rationing a reality. Poppy cock to both.

Personally, I am very happy with my health insurance – because I am able to afford it. To individuals like me a change is not necessarily warranted, at least not today. However, to those who have to declare bankruptcy or seek divorce as a measure to protect their assets from devastating health care costs, not to speak of the uninsured who cannot seek the services of the medical providers, the system is totally broken and needs to be changed. No matter which side of the debate you fall on one thing is clear that something has to be done - sooner or later. 

But having self serving political operators trying to scare the public to adopt a particular view point is as unpatriotic as any act an American can engage in – especially when they do it in the name of God and Country. Shame on all of them!

We American’s are touted to be amongst the most literate electorate in the world. Why then do such operatives exist? Because they can count on the fact that few of us will take the time to read the Bill ourselves. They know that majority of the electorate would much rather rely on those who seem to sympathize with our personal moral compass and general life attitudes to spoon feed us the news so we may be educated on the subject. Make no mistake, those who are telling the public that the Bill is calling for euthanasia or health care rationing to be part of our health care system are twisting the Bill. As are the proponents of the Bill who are parading it to be the ‘be all end all’ solution to fix our nation’s health care troubles. 

I do not agree with many provisions of the Bill and yes it can and should be improved. But I am incensed by those who are being less than honest about the content of the Bill. The honest debate is whether the system needs to be changed at all or not. It is an insult to intelligent Americans for those with the bully pulpit to pick small parts of the Bill, distort the meaning or content and present it as the Truth. That is not a conservative value or a liberal value any American can or should be proud of. 

Following my own advice I dish out freely, which is - do not wait for others to do the right thing, do it yourself, I took time to read the specific section of the Bill that is supposedly advocating euthanasia and health care rationing. 

But I do not wish to give you my take on it. Rather I would have you go read the proposal yourself and make up your own mind. And if you wish to share your thoughts after you have read the Section I would invite your comments back via email at radio@agingoptions.com or on the air next week. 

You can call my office to obtain a copy of the entire Bill or a copy of the specific Section which discussed the consultation issue. Or you can go to www.agingoptions.com yourself and link to the information. I hope that you will take time to read for yourself the issue before making up your mind. It is a five page section and will take about 20 minutes of your time to read. 

To read a copy of the proposed legislation go to: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.3200:

Click the link to read the text of  SEC. 1233. ADVANCE CARE PLANNING CONSULTATION.

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