There are certain figures that just stick out in our minds, like 9 out of 10 people live

in the Northern Hemisphere, or nearly half of all marriages and in divorce.

Well as a physician and an economist, I'm fascinated by this one, you may have heard it.

Up to 25% of annual Medicare spending goes to patients in their final year of life.

Of course, the exact size of the figure depends on how you calculate it.

But either way, that's a lot of money, over $150 billion on healthcare for people with

less than 12 months to live.

There have been politically charged arguments for years about this issue.

Mr. Kane, you made a passing comment at the end of your layout of something regarding a

death panel.

Did I hear you say that correctly?

Absolutely sir.

Would you please describe for me what a death panel is?

No matter how much doctors try to predict it, death is largely unpredictable even among

the very sick.

One study from the University of Chicago found that doctors overestimated how long hospice

patients with cancer had to live by a factor of five.

As in, they might suggest you have 10 weeks when it turns out you only have two.

From the Freakonomics Radio Network, this is Freakonomics MD.

I'm Bob Ujena.

I'm an economist and I'm also a medical doctor.

Each episode, I dissect an interesting question at the sweet spot between health and economics.

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