RationingReader comment on: Bloomberg on End-of-Life Cancer Treatment Submitted by ben (United States), Mar 4, 2010 10:25 The most amazing statistic from the health care summit was one cited by Coburn (I think) that the Democrats agreed with, that 50% of health costs go to people in their last year of life. Spending so much on the care in the last year, weeks or even day of life is a decision our society makes. It has the unintended but predictable effect of driving up rates for everyone else, forcing some people off of insurance, leading to preventable diseases and death as well. It is hard to say "no" to someone at the end of their life to help an unnamed person at the beginning of his, but this is a the tradeoff we make. It seems shortsighted, but if it were my parent who was at the end of life. . . Note: Comments are moderated by the editor and are subject to editing. The Future of Capitalism replies: In addition, it's not always clear when you start spending that it is going to be the last year of life. Other reader comments on this item
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