Not enough is known about the cost of end-of-life care for persons with different medical conditions. Researchers used data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) to examine the social costs and financial risks faced by Medicare beneficiaries 5 years before death. They considered various social costs associated with disease, such as government spending (Medicare), private insurance, out-of-pocket expenditures, and informal care. They also examined how these spending components varied across four disease groups: dementia, cancer, heart disease, and other conditions.
The researchers found that total social costs for Medicare patients with dementia was $250,000 per person in the last 5 years of life, which is 57 percent greater than social costs associated with death from other conditions.