Dying is expensive in America. Healthcare expenditures from all payors (public and private) total $80,000 in the last 12 months of life and $155,000 in the last 3 years. Although most end-of-life expenses are paid by insurers such as Medicare and Medicaid, the amount households pay out-of-pocket is hardly trivial. Furthermore, some conditions, such as dementia, are not well insured, leaving families with potentially enormous liabilities. In this viewpoint, we discuss the current funding of end-of-life care in the US. We argue that long-term care (LTC) expenses are underinsured relative to other types of late-in-life care, such as hospital spending and doctor visits. We then discuss potential reforms that would better insure families against catastrophic expenses related to LTC.
Authors
Karolos Arapakis
Eric French
Eric is the Montague Burton Professor of Industrial Relations and Labour Economics at the University of Cambridge and Professor of Economics at UCL.
John Jones
Jeremy McCauley
Jeremy is a Research Associate at IFS and an Assistant Professor at the University of Bristol with particular interest in public economics and health.
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