Everyone knows how important it is to be able to make decisions regarding your health care. But what happens if you are unable to make your own health care decisions? Can someone else make them for you?

Yes, but only if you have appointed someone to be your health care agent or issued a health care power of attorney. Together with this appointment you should also specify your wishes by writing out some “Health Care Directives.”

The National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys has issued this following news bulletin to remind people to name their health care agent in writing:

News
1. National Health Care Decisions Day is April 16
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Despite recent gains in public awareness of the need for advance care planning, studies indicate that most Americans have not exercised their right to make decisions about their healthcare in the event that they cannot speak for themselves. The National Healthcare Decisions Day event will help Americans understand that making future healthcare decisions includes much more than deciding what care they would or would not want; it starts with expressing preferences, clarifying values, identifying care preferences and selecting an agent to express healthcare decisions if patients are unable to speak for themselves. The National Healthcare Decisions Day (NHDD) initiative is a collaborative effort of national, state and community organizations committed to ensuring that all adults with decision-making capacity in the United States have the information and opportunity to communicate and document their healthcare decisions.

If you haven’t yet done so, decide you will now put your Health Care Power of Attorney and Health Care Directives in place. Don’t delay-do it today.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 5th, 2010 at 12:11 pm and is filed under Estate Planning Tips, Living Will, Power of Attorney. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.