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Cost Analysis of Cryonics vs Longterm Intensive Care at Hospitals

Ever wonder how expensive end-of-life care is in the US? Or how cost-competitive cryonics might be for those who felt it offered a superior chance at life?

This analysis was spurred by a hospital employee I know who recently suggested that perhaps POLST forms for terminal patients should be modified to offer cryonics. Instead of simply offering choices like DNR (do not resuscitate) and Full Code, the terminally ill could be offered cryopreservation under certain circumstances as well. The obvious reasoning is that the quality of life for the worst off patients is so low (especially for those who end up on ventilators), the chance of near-term revival is so slim, and the cost of care is so high, that cryonics must be cost competitive with intensive, ongoing ICU care. But how high is the cost?

Longterm ICU costs:
* $1,522 / day for a ventilator
* $16 / day for a PEG
* $255 / day for hemodialysis
* $80 / day for pressure ulcer treatment
* $319 / day (extrapolated) for room, misc costs

* $2192 / day x 12.7 days = $28,000 cost of cryonics at Cryonics Institute

Taken at face value, this suggests that an insurer might prefer paying for cryonics if they expect a patient to be on a ventilator for over 12.7 days. But the average length of mechanical ventilation (for patients who get ventilator treatment at all) is already known to be 14.4 days[1][2]. So insurers could likely save money by allowing patients to voluntarily elect cryopreservation in any situation where they would otherwise end up on a ventilator.

[1] This ~14 day care estimate is conservatively short in the sense that it includes everyone over 18 given ventilation and not just the terminally ill.

[2] This cost estimate is also conservative in the sense that the cost data is all 12 years old and is presumably more expensive now.

Author Description

Louie Helm is a Machine Learning Engineer

5 Responses to “Cost Analysis of Cryonics vs Longterm Intensive Care at Hospitals”

  1. September 12

    Ken Myers

    Whoah. Brilliant.

  2. September 13

    Alex Kawas

    Excellent.

  3. September 14

    Laura A. Baur

    But they would have to offer cryonics to all pts at end of life- they wouldn’t be allowed to pick and choose, and pts families would take their sweet time- likely would wait several days on ventilation to see if pt recovered before going ahead with cryo.

  4. September 14

    Laura A. Baur

    The first thing I would do to reduce end of life care would be to *reqire* advanced directives as part of the application for insurance.

  5. September 15

    Kennita Watson

    IIUC cryonics companies want arrangements to be set up ahead of time, and the concept of cryonics may be a lot for many people to get their heads around. So save yourself and your loved ones stress at a difficult time: set up a cryonics contract now, and let your loved ones know that when it comes to the end, you prefer cryonics to other end-of-life desperate measures.

    One place to start looking for further information is the Longecity page on cryonics: http://www.longecity.org/forum/page/index.html/_/articles/cryonics . As that page notes, the expense of cryonics can be covered using life insurance, which is much less expensive when you’re young and healthy than when you’ll actually need it.

    Cryonics is an idea whose time has come;let’s help insurance companies, regulators, et al. get the message.