If we want Medicare to work we are going to have to raise Medicare taxes and premiums.

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126. My Mom has had a feeding tube for over 2 years.

My Mom is 94 as of today, and she can't swallow any more. She would have died of starvation had she not agreed to have the feeding tube put in. She had dropped from 145 pounds to 117 pounds in 16 months. So she had the feeding tube installed. It has literally given her 2 more years of life so far. She is now back up to 145 pounds. She gets all her nutrition through that tube (a liquid formula called Jevity). It is actually easier now, just to give her the formula 3 times per day, than it was to try to prepare and feed her food and drink. There is a danger of the patient pulling out the feeding tube, and if that happens it has to be restored immediately in a hospital. There are wide belts that can be put around the patient's abdomen, which cover up the feeding tube when not in use, so that they can't get to it. We have not had to use the belt. My Mom sometimes fiddles with the end of the tube and asks what it is, but she has never pulled it out. I was initially dismayed at the idea of the feeding tube for her, but in her case it has saved her life and it is easier then her trying to swallow and a more certain way of her getting her nutrition. And it is paid for, including the formula, by a combination of Medicare and Tricare, since it is medically necessary.