There are many very insightful comments in this thread. I particularly like patientrenter’s first reply outlining the various conflicting interests in healthcare.

Physicians aren’t the only ones complicit in the quest to stop death at all costs, the family at the bedside and ever present lawyer-threat are drivers pushing the physician to do just a little more.

The article citing costs spent in the last several months of life is quite telling. However, it is in retrospect as you don’t know it is someone’s last few months of life until they actually die. It’s hard to cut off the last month of spending when you don’t know when the last month of life is.