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Forty percent, in the United States, of Medicare costs go to the last month of life. "Oh, please,
keep my father alive. Do whatever you have to do," and the answer to that is simple.
It's time, for America, it's time for us to have an intelligent conversation about death.
That can cut costs. All these phrases around death: "Oh, he passed away," "She's no longer
with us." No, she died. Anybody here not going to die? Raise your hand. Let me know. How
many of you are religious? Well, you don't need to answer that, but if you are, heaven's
a pretty cool place, so death isn't a bad thing, at least if you believe what the church
is telling you. So the point I'm trying to make somewhat facetiously
is, if you're a 50-year-old man or woman, you probably have an aging parent still alive,
and you probably have a child coming of age. "Son, here's how I want to die. If my brain
is flat-line, do not keep me alive." "Dad, how do you want to go? Do you want to go with
dignity?" So the conversation turns from, "Well, we've got this experimental procedure
we can do. We don't know if it will work and you're going to lose all your hair and you
can get real depressed and you can lose 20 pounds and no one will want to talk to you
and you won't be able to get out of bed," to, "I'll give you a choice: that, or think
of your bucket list and spend the next six months travelling, doing that bucket list
with your grandchildren. Your choice." Doctors don't do that now because they are
sworn to keep the patient alive, so I signed a thing called the Five Wishes in the United
States that says, "If it's this condition, I want this to happen. If it's this condition,
I want this to happen." Now, I'm different than my wife who says, "Don't keep me alive
if I'm a vegetable." I say, as I say to you, "I'm going to try ..." I really believe, as
you will see, in the medical miracles that are about to happen. So if you're over 40,
stay in really good shape because, by 2025, you might be able to add a couple of decades
to your life because, by 2025, those born in this country will live to be 100, so it
changes the game.