By Jason:
There is a bill being tossed around congress that would allocate $300 million to create a Center for Comparative Effectiveness (CCE). The responsibility of this program would be to compare the effectiveness of newer, more expensive medications with older, more economical medications.
According to the CCE plan, Medicare would then use the center's findings to determine which medications to cover. Essentially, this would create a government controlled system of supplying medical care based on a government controlled system of evaluation of potential treatments. You can see the conflict of interest.
We can imagine a potential case in which approval of a new drug would result in additional millions of dollars of Medicare expenditure on a national scale. If the CCE's results were anything less than 100% conclusive in stating that the new drug was more effective than the old, we could see a more effective treatment taken off the market.
Additionally, we must consider that such studies of effectiveness are not infallible. Click here for the full article.
Second Epinion - This seems to me like one step closer to universal health care. The role of doctors as those who diagnose and treat medical conditions is already under attack. If we continue to reduce doctors' autonomy it won't be long before we can no longer claim having the best health care system in the world. What do you think of the CCE? Leave us your comments.
4 comments:
The system is already like the situation you described. Medicare/medicaid only pay for certain meds, usually generics, and refuses to pay for name brand and sometimes more effective medications.
While private insurances will not be directly affected by such a change, we must realize that Medicaid and Medicare set the LOW standard for all the other insurances to follow.
Do we claim to have the best health care system in the world? I'd like to hear about the pros and cons of our system versus other good ones in the world.
I think that the system of administration, billing, etc. in the USA could definately rivaled. However, without a question, if you have a disease you will find the best treatment for it in the USA (assuming that you can convince someone you've never seen before in a cubicle in a city half a world away that you need the treatment.)
Sure, I wouldn't want to be anywhere else if I were to need serious medical treatment. So our specialized care is the most advanced, and that's definitely saying something. What about just the regular routine stuff?
I would say that's only about on par with other countries, or maybe worse, since many people don't have access to even that.
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