Here’s the Saturday open line. If you’ve a mind to read something serious, but important read this:

It’s from Vox, by Sarah Kliff. It’s about years of work by health providers in LaCrosse, Wisc., to encourage patients to have conversations with doctors about planning for their time to die.

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Results: Dramatic drop in the cost of end-of-life care and, surveys indicate, care closely aligned with the desires of those who’ve had The Conversation. No panic about death panels. Just informed decision making. The article says 96 percent of the La Crosse residents have an advance directive on final care. Remarkable figure. This practice is spreading, including to Minnesota, where the state is providing money for a similar program. In La Crosse, doctors are doing it for free. 

It’s time to have this conversation here. But read the story. It’s not about pulling the plug on Granny (unless, of course, she’s made it clear that’s precisely what she wants.) As Kliff has also written, refusal to talk about the subject hurts the elderly, in addition to adding costs to the system.

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