End of Life Decision in Ethic

With the advance of medical treatments and technology, people are living longer with the number of elderly population continue to increase. This is further compounded by the baby boomers reaching retirement age and becoming intense utilization of medical care services. With US health care cost reaching over $2 trillion today, there is mounting pressure to examine where the health care dollars are utilized. Statistics showed that 10% of the Medicare beneficiaries are responsible for close to 65% of Medicare spending; with 68% of this population have five or more chronic health conditions. The statistics also reflects that close to $50 billion were spent on the final two months of life (Goodman, Amos, Fisher & Chang, 2011). With the cost at the end of life disproportionately contribute to health care costs in the United States; addressing these costs will be an important component to balance the US health system to insure financial sustainability.

Research on end of life care has demonstrated that more care does not necessarily tied to better quality, patient satisfaction, or outcome. Leading authorities such as the Dartmouth Institute for Heath Policy and Clinical Practice and The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation have partnered in collaboration to study glaring variation in how medical resources are distributed and utilized in United States. The goal is to translate these comprehensive data into reports so policymakers and health care analysts can better understand the efficiency and effectiveness of our health care system.

The Dartmouth Atlas Project was the first to report trends and variation on cancer care at the end of life care. The report stated that about one-fourth of all Medicare spending goes to paying for care of patients in their last year of life. The findings also identified the lack of consistency in care provided, and that many clinical teams aggressively treat patients with the hope of improving the quality of life in the last...