"I'm sure that hospice has its place in certain circumstances, and they do a good job of easing the pain and comforting the dying. But it shouldn't be an absolute death sentence and routine medical care should be provided."
Hospice is not a death sentence, but generally the diagnoses of the patient is one (a death sentence). By definition hospice care does not start until the patient is terminally ill with 6 months to live. Hospice can't change that.
Sadly, many families and patients are in deep denial until hospice is called in. It's often very late in the disease process (for some only weeks to live). So hospice gets the blame when in fact your loved one is dying, and the disease is killing them, but BLAME feels good. So hospice gets blamed ... for pretty much everything.