Every insurance covers different things. Some insurance companies will agree to pay all of the life support, some will pay for half of it until they can't anymore, and others refuse to pay for any of it. In the last two months of patients' lives, Medicare spent over $55 billon dollars, in the year of 2013. All of this money could be going towards other things in the world that matter. The patients on life support need to be checked up on multiple times a day by nurses and their doctors (Court 1). The hospital is full of other patients who seek the doctor's attention, so checking up on these patients is just wasting their time when they could be helping other patients. Doctors and nurses need to keep an eye on the patient's nutrition, hydration, heartbeats, lungs and other organs in the body that could possibly fail. This isn't just a quick second check up, it takes multiple minutes. Not checking up and taking care of the brain dead patient would lead to carelessness and unprofessional. Dr. Ira Byock says in his interview, "Collectively, as a culture, we really have to acknowledge that we're mortal. Get over it. And start looking at what a healthy, morally robust way for people to die looks like. " (Court 4). He believes that a machine is stopping some from dying when it's their time to go. It is not a healthy way to die (Court 1). Dr. Ira Byock then goes on to talk about how he has other patients who have a higher risk of living who need his attention. Also, some families can choose to take their loved one on life support home and take care of them there. But, the families who choose not to and have their loved one kept at the hospital, are wasting space for other patients who actually seek the help they need. If there was less life support being used, people in a hospital would be able to spend more time and take of their other patients.
When a patient is considered to be brain dead, it means technically they are alive but there is no chance of the patient ever to wake up.
