A health care proxy is an estate planning document you can use in New York to select an agent to make medical decisions on your behalf.
Typically, this does not change anything at the moment that you make the health care proxy. Instead, you are just selecting an agent who will take on that power in the future if you become incapacitated.
For instance, you could suffer from medical complications after a stroke and be admitted to the hospital. You cannot work with your medical team due to your condition, but they need to make decisions about what type of care to provide. Your agent can then step in, and the medical staff has to treat their decisions as if they are, legally speaking, decisions that you have made.
Are there other potential options?
Yes, you can take other steps to plan for your medical future. Many people will use a type of advance directive known as a living will.
The difference with a living will is that you make the decisions yourself in advance. Say that you do not want to be kept on life support. Your living will can state that, regardless of what happens, you should never be put on life support, and the doctors have to follow that instruction.
The main difference with the health care proxy is that your agent can make decisions as they are needed, which is much different from you trying to guess about the type of care you would want in advance.
Both of these documents can certainly be helpful, and it is important to consider your medical future when creating an estate plan. Be sure you know exactly what legal steps to take under New York law.