For the longtime Berkshire Hathaway vice chairman, medicine has never been a polite topic Charlie Munger. The late investing legend spent decades dissecting markets, businesses and human behavior, and he applied the same blunt logic when the topic turned to health care.
In a 2018 appearance on Fox Business, Munger told the host Liz Klarman One corner of modern medicine troubled him deeply. In his view, some treatments continue long after their benefits have worn off, causing suffering and huge costs with little chance of helping patients.
When treatment turns into profit
Klarman asked Munger about his comments criticizing how the U.S. health care system sometimes handles end-of-life care. Munger didn’t soften the point.
“It’s foolish to give a lot of chemotherapy to people who are almost dead,” Munger told Klarman. “It makes them miserable, costs them a lot of money, and does no one any good.”
He even goes a step further, arguing that financial incentives can push treatments beyond what they can help.
“It’s not an exaggeration to say it’s evil,” Munger said.
The Berkshire Hathaway leader has served on hospital boards and said those experiences shaped his view of how the system works. His criticism focused on cases that continued active treatment primarily because they generated revenue rather than meaningful medical benefit.
Even Munger can “throw long bombs”
Klarman then offered a personal idea. What if Munger himself was diagnosed with cancer and doctors said treatment had at least a chance of prolonging his life?
Munger’s answer was different than some viewers expected.
“Of course I’m going to try,” he said. “I might drop a long bomb.”
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But he is quick to add that there is a point where medicine needs to recognize reality.
“The game has to end,” Munger said. “It’s wrong to continue treating people to make money after the game is almost over.”
The difference, in his view, is between trying a treatment that has a real chance of success and continuing aggressive treatment after the outcome is mostly certain.
Why Munger thinks single-payer is inevitable
The interview quickly turned to the broader structure of U.S. health care. Klarman asked whether the U.S. could eventually move toward a single-payer system.
Munger said the country is already using a version of it.
“We have a lot of single-payer drugs now,” he told Klarman, noting that the Medicaid and Medicare programs already cover millions of Americans.
He also refutes the idea that such systems destroy capitalism, pointing to the evidence.
“In other countries like Canada, they give everyone Medicaid and no one wants to give it back,” Munger said. “Canada has not lost capitalism.”
His argument is simple. Berkshire Hathaway chairman says health care costs have increased to about 17% of U.S. GDP from about 5% a few decades ago Warren Buffett It was once called the “tapeworm” of the American economy.
Why Munger’s warning still resonates
Munger died in 2023 at the age of 99, but his words continue to resonate in today’s health care debate.
End-of-life care remains one of the most expensive components of the U.S. healthcare system. Research from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services shows that a large portion of lifetime health care spending occurs in the last few years of life.
This reality is at the heart of ongoing debates about cost, ethics, and patient choice. Some doctors think aggressive treatment offers hope. Others say the system often struggles to balance medical possibilities and quality of life.
Munger’s point is not that medicine should stop trying. Incentives are important.
As with many of his remarks, the Berkshire Hathaway vice chairman delivered the message the same way he has approached investing for nearly a century: bluntly, logically, and not too concerned with whether it made anyone uncomfortable.
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This article Charlie Munger says it’s evil and stupid to continue giving chemotherapy to people who are ‘dying to die’ just to make money ‘after the game is over’ originally appeared on Benzinga.com
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