National Healthcare Decisions Day
- jondab
- Apr 16
- 3 min read
April 16 is National Healthcare Decisions Day. This date was based on the quote by Benjamin Franklin that states, “In this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes.”
The idea is that you take care of your taxes on April 15 and then review your health care plan on April 16. This is a reminder to begin or review health plans through the end of life. The main goal of this day is to demystify healthcare and make the topic approachable and normal.
If you need help with getting started with this topic, the conversation project has an extensive list of resources.
I feel that not only having your healthcare plans decided on and legally written out are important, but it is also important that family and friends know what your wishes are and where to find the paperwork.
We all are familiar with the Golden Rule but are we as familiar with the Platinum Rule? While the Golden Rule asks us to “do unto others as we would have them do unto you” the Platinum Rule asks us to “do unto others as they would want done unto themselves”. This shift is huge.
My husband recently died after a five year plus fight with cancer. All through this journey I followed his wishes, hopes, and desires. If this was my illness, I would have had different desires in my health care plan. It’s so important to have these plans in place and shared with those who will care for you after you can no longer care for yourself.
Like Swedish Death Cleaning makes your current life easier and also makes things easier for your loved ones when you die, so does having your healthcare decisions in order make your life less complicated but also takes away the burden of making those decisions on your loved ones during the stressful time of a terminal illness.
We tend to think of this type of planning as something we should do as we get older. But in reality, everyone 18 years of age and older should have a plan in place. Medical crisis can happen at any age and when a youth hits 18 his parents no longer can speak for him or have any legal say if their child can no longer speak for themselves unless there is an advance directive in place.
Not only should we have a health care plan in place, but we should review it on a regular basis. Our wishes and desires at one phase of our life can change as we age or have more health concerns. Having a date on your calendar like April 16 to remind us to revies our plans is a wonderful idea.
So, moving forward, besides having April 15 circled in red on our calendar, let’s circle April 16 as well.
If you are ready to work on organizing your medical paperwork or any other organizing project and want some tips, encouragement, or accountability join Diane Quintana and me in our Clear Space For You virtual clutter support group. You could complete a small project or set up an organizing plan
during the call. The group will offer ideas, support, and gentle accountability for working on developing plans or projects.
Jonda S. Beattie, Professional Organizer owner of Time Space Organization, and co-owner of Release, Repurpose, Reorganize. She is based in the Metro-Atlanta area. As presenter, award-winning author, as well as a retired special education teacher she uses her listening skills, problem solving skills, knowledge of different learning techniques, ADHD specialty, and paper management skills to help clients.
Linda, thanks for taking time to respond. It's so important to review your wishes every few years. What I wanted when my boys were growing up and what I want now are very different.
This is so important, and I had no idea that Medical Decisions Day existed. I procrastinated for a long time on making the required documents, but among my various legal documents, I do have primary and secondary healthcare proxies (PoAs) and an advanced care directive (living will) to provide my proxies with guidance as to what I want. Everyone does want something different. Every time I take my sister for surgery, she reminds me that she wants to be unplugged after a week; conversely, my mother says she wants to live on and "be a burden" (she jokes). And my living will literally spells out what they can and can't do, including requiring that I be kept "plugged in" with…
Thank you for sharing such an important topic. You went through so much in the past five years with taking care of your husband. I know how hard it was. Having his wishes front and center must have been a comfort as you had to make many difficult decisions.
When my mom was diagnosed with vascular dementia and her decision-making became compromised, I was so grateful she had taken the time before then to get her health directives, POAs, wills, etc. updated. There were many hard choices we had to make. However, being able to refer to her wishes, helped me to help her as she wanted.
I appreciate the reminder that even though we have our papers in order,…