Everyone Over 18 Should Have a Health Care Directive
You may have never considered executing a Health Care Directive for yourself… much less your eighteen-year-old “child.” But you should. While your eighteen-year-old still seems like a kid in your eyes, he or she has reached the age of majority under the law. This means that you, Mom and Dad, no longer have access to your adult child’s medical records.
Imagine that your child is away at college and is injured in a car accident. The phone rings at 2 a.m. It’s your son’s college buddy. “Umm, Mrs. Jones… there was a bad accident. Joey is in the hospital.” You frantically call the hospital and hear “blah, blah, HIPAA, blah, cannot release information, blah.” You want to yell, “that’s my CHILD.” To make matters worse, when you finally arrive at the hospital, the doctors may not honor your wishes for Joey’s care.
It does not need to be this way. Executing a Minnesota Health Care Directive will resolve such a scenario. Unlike the Living Wills or Powers of Attorney for Health Care from the past, a Health Care Directive will allow you to name an agent to make decisions for you, and it gives you the opportunity to articulate your wishes for your care.
Whether you’ve celebrated your eighteenth birthday recently or decades ago, it’s time to protect yourself and your family with a Health Care Directive. Contact us to learn more.
