Women Unlikely to Choose Spouse As Healthcare Agent

Hospice News reports on a Koda Health study finding:

• Women name an adult child as their primary medical decision maker 55% of the time.
• But men name an adult child as their primary medical decision maker only 27% of the time.
• Men name their spouse about 50% of the time. 
• But women name their spouse only 22% of the time.

If validated by further research, this evidence suggests that default surrogate rules should be revised. Because so few Americans have advance directives appointing healthcare agents, default surrogates rules are commonly important. Almost every statutory hierarchical list in U.S. jurisdictions has spouse at the top. But perhaps that should be different for female patients with adult children.