It’s not hospice care people are talking about. It’s all the things people try before hospice care. Expensive cancer treatment regimens, patented prescription drugs (especially what seems to be trending now — wildly expensive antibody-based therapies), extended hospital stays, surgeries, dialysis, specialist consults, etc. It would probably be a better world if it was more acceptable to simply choose hospice rather than fighting until the very end.

For those who have never read it, I highly recommend Ken Murray’s 2011 essay “How Doctors Die”. Those who have experience with how the hospital system approaches care for the dying overwhelmingly reject it and choose hospice, or choose to die at home.