One More BIG Reason to Have a Health Care Directive

I'm getting married in 5 short days. One thing that is important when you decide to tie the knot is to consider who should be your agent on your healthcare directive. A even more important questions: Do you have a health care directive? If not, the Los Angeles Times has just given you one more reason to create one: Advance directives for end-of-life care result in preferred treatment.

That’s right, according to the recent article; those people who have recorded their wishes for end-of-life treatment have their wishes followed by agents and doctors over 80% of the time. According to a health and retirement study done between the years of 2000 and 2006, “researchers found that of the 398 incapacitated people who had used a living will to request limited care at the end of life, almost 83% received it…” and “…Of the 417 incapacitated people who had requested comfort care in a living will, 97% received it.”

Those are huge percentages, especially when you consider how easy it is to create a health care directive.

There is no down side to recording your wishes and nominating a trusted agent to help ensure those wishes are followed—it brings you peace mind, it brings comfort to your family members, and our office can help you execute one quickly and easily. Knowing all this, as well as the fact that studies now show how truly effective they are in getting you the treatment you desire… there’s really no reason to delay any longer.