Interesting Stroke, Heart Medicine Info.

https://singularityhub.com/2011/09/16/brain-and-coronary-stents-expensive-popular-cutting-edge-–-and-they-dont-even-work/

Excerpt
"The use of coronary stents has exploded since they were first used in the mid-1980s. In 2004, over a million patients received coronary stents. Entitled COURAGE (Clinical Outcomes Utilizing Revascularization and Aggressive Drug Evaluation), a 2007 trial sought to determine if coronary stents with drugs offered more advantages than drugs alone in alleviating chronic chest pain caused by blocked coronary arteries. They found no difference in the outcome of the two groups in regards to death, heart attack, and stroke. It didn’t make matters worse, but it didn’t help either. The published study was called a “blockbuster,” Boston Scientific Corp. who makes the coronary stent saw their stock fall, and doctors saw usage of the stent begin to fall off.

For a time.

One month after the study was published the use of coronary stents in the US decreased by 13 percent. “But as the headlines about COURAGE faded, stentings soon began to rise again, and are now back at peak levels of about one million a year,” reported the Wall Street Journal.

Why would health care providers continue stenting despite the evidence that there’s no added benefit above drugs alone? As you might’ve guessed, it’s all about the money."

Well now that you know will this change how you'll choose what to do when the time comes?

...and that is a large part of what's wrong with the way medicine is practiced.

Agreed!

It doesn't answer the question. As patients prior who've had stents the blockages return and impede blood flow eventually.  and they can't always roto router thru it. So obviously stents buy you time but not immortality.

So the question becomes eventually the insurance companies deny the procedure because it's a waste of money and then your back to the death panel rhetoric.

Knowing what research has said do you willingly do the procedure and to help prolong your life knowing the current  research and the cost of astronomical insurance costs?

Nobody cares about the cost as long as insurance pays for it. Ask someone with insurance in the US how much a blood test costs and they can't tell you and they don't care. Insurance will pay most or all of the cost so the the patient doesn't even look at the cost. This is one reason insurance costs so much.

When I worked at the Medical School in Oregon I had a chance to talk to the head of our cardiac surgery department about the effectiveness of coronary bypass surgery and the outcomes. He said research had shown that drugs and surgery vs drugs alone have the same death and quality of life outcomes.

Personally I think an itemized bill should be presented and a fee schedule prior to any procedure.
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The quest remains unanswered.

"Knowing what research has said do you willingly do the procedure and to help prolong your life knowing the current research and the cost of astronomical insurance costs?"