> If we left it to the insurance companies, they would probably identify the cost savings of killing off the elderly and be done with it
The obvious conflict of interest here is obvious and palpable. However, there is a sinister other side of the medal. The elderly are literally used by the providers (doctors, hospitals, provider networks, all of whom are for profit businesses in the US) as ATMs. If someone is covered by Medicare (and often dual eligible for Medicaid), is old and senile, has no relatives who care enough to advocate for them, they will endure inhumane end of life full of unnecessary painful procedures, expensive drug therapies with little tangible benefit or any hope of recovery. You may think that this is the exception to the rule, but I KNOW the statistics from my job and they are not pretty. This happens ALL THE TIME. I have seen extremely invasive unnecessary and debilitating surgeries performed on elderly Medicare patients in order to get the generous Medicare payouts. As soon as Medicare gold mine is exhausted, the patient is dumped into hospice care. Again, the prevalence of these unnecessary treatments for financial gain is not in single percentage points. And don't get me started on Pharmaceutical companies. Check out efficacy statistics on some of the most expensive new chemotherapy agents that have been approved recently. There are some real eye openers.