Estate Planning & Healthcare
Did you know that without a named Health Care Surrogate a court may decide who makes medical decisions for you?
That person may or may not be the person you want. I know who I WOULD want and who I WOULDN'T want to make my health care decisions. My BFF knows every scenario I could think of and what I want done in each; and I know hers. That conversation started when we were 18 and we had to tell a friend her BF was cheating on her. Well, that ended the friendship because she didn’t want to know, so we started talking about boys and what we would want to know. That lead to a talk about death and dying, weird right? But that’s a different story..
When it comes to Estate Planning, health care is an important part of that process. When it comes to healthcare issues there are generally three major documents that you need. HIPPA Authorization, Living Will and Healthcare surrogate designation. Sexy, right? While everyone needs these, the people with the greatest need for them are the elderly and young adults.
As you get older, the risk not being able to make your own healthcare decisions, whether through impairment or disability, significantly increases. Your child is technically an adult at age 18, hard to believe, I know, and if you need or want to be involved in his or her healthcare, well..without the appropriate documents, you no longer have the legal authority to make their healthcare decisions.