Agreed, but the fact of the matter is we spend over half the healthcare costs in this country in the last 6 months of someone’s life. That is 8% of GDP spent to add a month or two at the very of your life. That is a horrible investment. If you have the dough and want to do that on your own or your families dime, more power to you. But it’s killing the country’s finances and many believe will ultimately bankrupt us (mathematically certain it will if it continues to go up 8% annually in costs for much longer).
As far as adding a month or two to your life, there are a number of new drugs that promise just that, but looking at the list of the most expensive drugs, most appear prominently on that list, some of them are as much as $50K to $80K per pill. Hopefully the government isn't paying that much, but who knows? At that stage, even if the patient would rather not undergo the cost and futility, relatives and friends force them to. 0bama's solution was "Death Panels", and you know how well that was received.
The problem of course is that you don't typically know that it's the last 6 month's of someone's life until they die. So you don't know whether to spend or not.
Another problem is that unless you try, you are never going to get better.
But if you want then vote for death panels that are going to cut your care, because your prognosis is not great, or your older than 50. The Nazi's would be proud.
My father got fungal Meningitis at age 81. He was walking 3 miles a day and working an 8 hour shift as a greeter at Walmart before that. He could feel he was suddenly getting weak, so he went to the doc $ and his blood work checked out. Then he fell in the garden, went back to the doc $ and his blood work checked out. Then he fell in the carport and broke the tip of his tibia leg bone. $$$$. Within a week he couldn't stand even with help. So we took him to the hospital. $$$$$$. He was in the hospital a week before they managed to diagnose him. Then they started the anti-fungal medicine. He had a stroke while they were treating him.
He lived 5 years after that. He didn't walk without assistance again. He didn't work again. But he did get to see his granddaughter graduate high school.
It did cost a lot to give him those last 5 years. But there was no way to know before hand what the cost would be or what the outcome would be. And he had paid for insurance to get medical treatment. And he had also bought long term care insurance to pay for caregivers so that he could stay at home.