Jimmy Carter

The Medicare Advance Directive Act could improve end-of-life care by allowing seniors to choose between aggressive, benevolent, or considerate medical ...

CMS can right the harm done to Jimmy Carter by initiating serious illness conversations with seniors during Medicare enrollment rather than ER visits. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) reimburses medical providers to have serious illness conversations with seniors and also pays them to treat incurable diseases, creating a conflict of interest. The legacy of Jimmy Carter as a Nobel Peace Prize recipient and consummate humanitarian did not align with his end-of-life experience. Medicare might surrender its authority and remain impartial by upholding the Patient Self-Determination Act of 1992, which grants seniors the right to make their own health care decisions. The purpose of the serious illness conversation is to offer patients a clear choice between treating and not treating an incurable disease like liver cancer. A non-serious illness conversation ends with the patient wishing to deny fate and oblige suffering recommended by health care heroes.