"The high cost of dying": what do the data show?
Assertions that we now spend too much of our medical dollar on the dying often imply a ready target for cost-containment efforts: frequency and intensity of expenditures at the end of life, especially for the aged. But available, although meager data suggest there has been neither a dramatic rise in the last 20 years in the use of the hospital as a place to die, nor of widespread use of "heroic" interventions on behalf of those who die. Rather, very sick patients receive intensive and expensive care; our ability to project rates of survival vs. terminal patient status warrants caution in approaches to medical economy.
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002388:Catastrophic Illness / Q000191:economics; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D005102:Health Expenditures; D006761:Hospitals / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D006278:Medicare; D008875:Middle Aged; D013727:Terminal Care / Q000191:economics*; D014481:United States