Contrary to popular belief, only 9% of national health expenditure is spent on end-of-life care in the USA. Although 5% of Medicare patients die every year, the final treatments are definitely expensive but they are not administered long-term – hence low costs overall.
Congress is considering increasing the palliative care budget which would “definitely improve quality of life, reduce depression and extend life expectancy.” At the present time, palliative care is still considered a luxury that is not accessible to all Americans. If nothing changes over the next twenty years, palliative care should increase by approximately 1% whereas the elderly American population is set to rise by 20%, thereby making one palliative care doctor available to 23,000 severely ill patients.
National Review, Wesley J. Smith (23/07/2018)
The Hill, Edo Banach (23/07/2018)