What is a Health Care Proxy?

Having a Health Care Proxy has always been important. Having one is likely to be even more important going forward.

So, what is a Health Care Proxy? This posts breaks down the basic definition under Oklahoma law into chunks below.

– It is someone over 18.

This makes common sense. The law requires being of legal age to make most kind of legal decisions.

–The title has the word health care as two words rather than one: Health Care Proxy versus Healthcare Proxy.

This is just a minor clarification and an attempt to follow the spelling in the act throughout and minimize confusion.

–It is someone appointed.

This appointment generally takes place in a document called an Advanced Directive for Health Care (ADHC). An ADHC has three main parts. The appointment of a Health Care proxy is usually in the second section.

An Advanced Directive for Healthcare is a different document than a Durable Power of Attorney.

–To make health care decisions.

The definition in the statute is very broad. The suggested statutory language appears to be more narrow or have more conditions.

I want to explore this in more detail in later posts. Because the new durable power of attorney law changes are making these issues more important.

–Health care decisions include but are not limited to certain end of life decisions.