TY - JOUR
T1 - End-Of-Life Medical Spending In Last Twelve Months Of Life Is Lower Than Previously Reported
AU - Mccauley, Jeremy E
AU - French, Eric
AU - Aragon, Maria
AU - Bakx, Pieter
AU - Chalkley, Martin
AU - Chen, Stacey
AU - Christensen, Bent
AU - Chuang, Hongwei
AU - Côté-Sergent, Aurelie
AU - De Nardi, Mariacristina
AU - Fan, Elliott
AU - Échevin, Damien
AU - Geoffard, Pierre-Yves
AU - Gastaldi-Ménager, Christelle
AU - Gørtz, Mette
AU - Ibuka, Yoko
AU - Jones, John Bailey
AU - Kallestrup-Lamb, Malene
AU - Karlsson, Martin
AU - Klein, Tobias
AU - de Lagasnerie, Grégoire
AU - Michaud, Pierre-Carl
AU - O’Donnell, Owen
AU - Rice, Nigel
AU - Skinner , Jonathan
AU - van Doorslaer , Eddy
AU - Ziebarth, Nicolas
AU - Kelly, Elaine
PY - 2017/7/1
Y1 - 2017/7/1
N2 - Although end-of-life medical spending is often viewed as a major component of aggregate medical expenditure, accurate measures of this type of medical spending are scarce. We used detailed health care data for the period 2009–11 from Denmark, England, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Taiwan, the United States, and the Canadian province of Quebec to measure the composition and magnitude of medical spending in the three years before death. In all nine countries, medical spending at the end of life was high relative to spending at other ages. Spending during the last twelve months of life made up a modest share of aggregate spending, ranging from 8.5 percent in the United States to 11.2 percent in Taiwan, but spending in the last three calendar years of life reached 24.5 percent in Taiwan. This suggests that high aggregate medical spending is due not to last-ditch efforts to save lives but to spending on people with chronic conditions, which are associated with shorter life expectancies.
AB - Although end-of-life medical spending is often viewed as a major component of aggregate medical expenditure, accurate measures of this type of medical spending are scarce. We used detailed health care data for the period 2009–11 from Denmark, England, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Taiwan, the United States, and the Canadian province of Quebec to measure the composition and magnitude of medical spending in the three years before death. In all nine countries, medical spending at the end of life was high relative to spending at other ages. Spending during the last twelve months of life made up a modest share of aggregate spending, ranging from 8.5 percent in the United States to 11.2 percent in Taiwan, but spending in the last three calendar years of life reached 24.5 percent in Taiwan. This suggests that high aggregate medical spending is due not to last-ditch efforts to save lives but to spending on people with chronic conditions, which are associated with shorter life expectancies.
U2 - 10.1377/hlthaff.2017.0174
DO - 10.1377/hlthaff.2017.0174
M3 - Article (Academic Journal)
C2 - 28679807
SN - 1544-5208
JO - Health affairs (Project Hope)
JF - Health affairs (Project Hope)
ER -
