Corinne Ellemeet of Groenlinks (the Green Left) made the proposal in February and recently presented it in the Lower Chamber of the Netherlands.

In technically advanced countries, 70 is not exactly equivalent to "old age." In the Netherlands, people born after 1955 will only receive a state pension when they are 67 years and 3 months old. This limit is expected to rise to 70 as the population ages. Life expectancy is slightly above 81.

Ellemeet insisted that she is only interested in giving the elderly the best possible care.

"It's not about saving money," she said, but about avoiding "overtreatment," because operations are not always beneficial and can even put undue strain on the patient.

However, the logic of her proposal is based on cost-effectiveness. She underscored that 70 percent of patients in Dutch hospitals are over 70, suggesting they should not receive the same treatment as younger patients as a matter of course. A screening process should be put into place when advanced and costly treatment is under consideration, she said—including heart operations, cancer treatment, kidney dialysis and the like.

"The central issue is this: What are we doing to the patient? Hospitalization, anesthesia, pain, and a deluge of drugs. Research shows overtreatment of elderly patients is still an everyday occurrence," she said.

In concrete terms, the patient's will to go on living and fighting would no longer play the determining role, but a geriatrician's opinion on what the patient's quality of life expectations would be. Stopping treatment would amount to "adding to the patient's quality of life," explained Hanna Willem, president of the Dutch association of Clinical Geriatrics, who supports Ellemeet's suggestion.

Last September, a study in the Netherlands found that over 65's account for one half of all health costs in the country. In 2017, care for the elderly amounted to 28 billion euro (about $31.5 billion US), equivalent to 8,650 euro (almost $10,000 US) per person. One in five persons is over 65 in the Netherlands, or a total of nearly 3.3 million souls. By 2030, the proportion is expected to reach one in four. Nearly 2,000 people are 100 or older.

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