The cutoff point is not cost - it's whether the doctors think there's any point. The families are given a choice about cutting someone off, and as far as I know, the hospitals fulfill their wishes if the person is not dying naturally but is no longer there. The real difference between our systems is that there's no reason for a Canadian to worry about cost at all. We will get hospital care for as long as we need it, as much intervention as we need/want, etc, etc. The only things that depend on private insurance are things like semi-private, ward, or private rooms.

My mom works in a chronic care hospital in Toronto, which includes at least one floor of palliative care patients. I have never heard her indicate that there was a cost issue associated with her patients, or that the government was backing out of some cases to let the hospital (in this case owned by the Salvation Army) take over. Some of her patients have been there for years.