The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) and the Kaiser Family Foundation examined Medicare’s costs for end-of-life care and created this interesting infographic. Some of the results might surprise you:
- Of 2.6 million total deaths in the United States in 2014, 2.1 million were among Medicare beneficiaries.
- The share of total Medicare spending for people at the end of life decreased from 18.6% to 13.5% between 2000 and 2014.
- Medicare spending for people at the end of life also decreased with age.
- Surveys show that more than 7 in 10 people aged 65 years and older have not discussed end-of-life care with a physician and that 4 in 10 have not documented their end-of-life care wishes.
