Table 5. Percent distribution of aged Medicare beneficiaries who died in 1979, by the number of high-cost years experienced in the last 6 calendar years of life for selected major causes of death: 1974-79.

Cause of death	Number of high-cost years
	Total	6	5	4	3	2	1	0
	Percent distribution
All causes	100	2	4	9	16	25	27	16
Heart disease	100	1	4	8	15	24	27	20
Cancer	100	1	5	10	22	30	26	5
Cerebrovascular disease	100	1	4	8	16	26	31	14

NOTES: Includes only decedents 70 years of age or over at time of death so that all decedents in the table were entitled to Medicare during at least 6 calendar years before death. Numbers may not add to total because of rounding. Complete cause-of-death titles and codes from the International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision, Clinical Modification, 1980, are given in Table 1.

SOURCE: The Continuous Medicare History Sample of the Medicare Statistical System maintained by the Health Care Financing Administration linked with the Mortality Statistics File maintained by the National Center for Health Statistics.