We Need to Talk About End-of-Life and its Costs

"The soaring cost of health care is the greatest threat to the country’s long-term solvency, and the terminally ill account for a lot of it. Twenty-five per cent of all Medicare spending is for the five per cent of patients who are in their final year of life, and most of that money goes for care in their last couple of months which is of little apparent benefit."

 From the New Yorker:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/02/100802fa_fact_gawande#ixzz1JeLEuFd9