Costs of health care in the last-year-of-life in Colombia: Evidence from two contributive regime health plans

Introduction: In USA, each year 5% of Medicare beneficiaries die, accounting for 25% of total Medicare health spending. Currently there are no studies addressing this issue in Latin American countries. Objective: To estimate how much money do health care plans spend, in comparison with their total health spending, in the provision of health care to people in their last-year-of-life in Colombia. Materials and methods: Based on claims data from two health plans with approximately 3.7 million people enrolled in the Colombian health system contributory regime, health care costs associated with patients in their last-year-of-life from 2011 to 2013 were estimated by using the decedent-survivor allocation method. Results: Last-year-of-life health expenditure in people aged 65 and above accounted for 18% of total spending. The decedent-survivor ratio in this group age was 4.7. Last-year-of-life health spending in all age ranges was 6.2% while the decedent-survivor ratio was 15.1. Conclusions: With the exception of USA, findings reported here suggest that last-year-of-life health care costs in Colombia are higher than those reported in other countries in the case of the elderly. Therefore, policymakers and health plans should work in strategies promoting palliative care programs in order to reduce these costs