By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
  • Health
    • Mental Health
    Health
    Healthcare organizations are operating on slimmer profit margins than ever. One report in August showed that they are even lower than the beginning of the…
    Show More
    Top News
    Cognitive Psychology and Risk-taking in Extreme Sports
    Theodore Rex Walrond Highlights the Connection between Cognitive Psychology and Healthcare
    April 1, 2025
    stress management for healthcare workers
    3 Tips For Healthcare Professionals: How To Stay Beautiful, Healthy, and Happy
    November 2, 2021
    importance of relaxing on the weekend for your health
    Importance of Relaxing During the Weekend for Optimal Health
    March 25, 2022
    Latest News
    Beyond Nutrition: Everyday Foods That Support Whole-Body Health
    June 15, 2025
    The Wide-Ranging Benefits of Magnesium Supplements
    June 11, 2025
    The Best Home Remedies for Migraines
    June 5, 2025
    The Hidden Impact Of Stress On Your Body’s Alignment And Balance
    May 22, 2025
  • Policy and Law
    • Global Healthcare
    • Medical Ethics
    Policy and Law
    Get the latest updates about Insurance policies and Laws in the Healthcare industry for different geographical locations.
    Show More
    Top News
    Image
    Person-Centered HealthCare: The FDA Gets Patient-Centric
    May 31, 2013
    Does the Supreme Court Understand Health Reform?
    April 12, 2012
    Racial Health Disparities Among People with Chronic Conditions in the US: Facts and Statistics
    July 25, 2013
    Latest News
    Top HIPAA-Compliant Messaging Apps for Healthcare Teams
    June 25, 2025
    When Healthcare Ends, the Legal Process Begins: What Families Should Know About Probate and Medical Estates
    June 20, 2025
    Preventing Contamination In Healthcare Facilities Starts With Hygiene
    June 15, 2025
    Strengthening Healthcare Systems Through Clinical and Administrative Career Development
    June 13, 2025
  • Medical Innovations
  • News
  • Wellness
  • Tech
Search
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Reading: Vouchercare for Cancer
Share
Notification Show More
Font ResizerAa
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
Font ResizerAa
Search
Follow US
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Health Works Collective > Policy & Law > Health Reform > Vouchercare for Cancer
BusinessHealth Reform

Vouchercare for Cancer

gooznews
Last updated: June 6, 2011 12:42 pm
gooznews
Share
6 Min Read
SHARE

The health care cost debate takes place on two stages using two languages, one scientific, the other economic. The net result is a failure to communicate.

The health care cost debate takes place on two stages using two languages, one scientific, the other economic. The net result is a failure to communicate.

The scientific texts emanated over the weekend from the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in Chicago. Ongoing clinical trials showed that science has come up with new drugs that can reduce the incidence of breast cancer and prolong life for people with skin cancer. The former is an estrogen inhibitor that would have to be taken by tens of millions of older women to have a major impact on reducing the rate of breast cancer. The latter would only be given to a subset of the 68,000 new cases of melanoma each year, and would extend life from a few months to a few years for some of the 7,700 who die from the disease each year. Again, most of those people are older, although there are a number of younger people, especially young women, who disproportionately get advanced skin cancer.

For both groups, the cost to the health care system when these drugs are approved, as they inevitably will be, will be calculated in the billions. Medicare will pick up the lion’s share of the tab, since most of the patients in both groups will be over 65.

More Read

Incorporating Patient Reported Outcomes in Post-Surgery Evaluation
During Nurses Strike, Patient Dies Due to Medical Error
Top 50 Most Social Media-Friendly Hospitals for 2013
Patient Centered Reception Areas
From the Health Innovator’s Collaborative: Providing Better Care with Less

Now let’s step around the corner to stage two, where the debate in this morning’s papers (if you read the Washington Post and New York Times every day, as I do) is over Rep. Paul Ryan’s plan to turn Medicare into a voucher program. Paul Samuelson, the top economics columnist in the Post, essentially endorses the plan saying “under Ryan’s plan, incentive would shift. Medicare would no longer be an open ATM; the vouchers would limit total spending.” What he doesn’t say is that it would only limit total spending by government. It would require seniors to pick up a growing share of the bill, and limit their own purchasing of health care, either by purchasing plans that didn’t cover expensive end-of-life care, or simply denying themselves routine treatments to avoid co-pays and deductibles.

Paul Krugman properly attacks this as a radical shift of costs onto seniors (which it would be), and goes on to say:

Medicare has to get serious about cost control; it has to start saying no to expensive procedures with little or no medical benefits, it has to change the way it pays doctors and hospitals, and so on. And a number of reforms of that kind are, in fact, included in the Affordable Care Act. But with these changes it should be entirely possible to maintain a system that provides all older Americans with guaranteed essential health care.

That, of course, begs the question of what’s essential. Is a cancer prevention drug that cost $1,000 a year and will, if reimbursed by Medicare, cost billions annually to reduce the incidence of breast cancer from 14 per 1000 to 10 per 1000 “essential”? Is a drug that extends the life of a few thousand people an average of six months or so at a cost of $500 million a year “essential”?

America’s love affair with scientific medicine shows no sign of ending. Incremental improvements in cancer care and other advanced technologies are inevitable in the years ahead, since the government ($31 billion a year) and the private sector (over $50 billion a year) continue to make health R&D the nation’s number one priority when it comes to science (it’s 20 times greater than what we pour into energy R&D, for instance, even though a good argument could be made that man-made climate change due to excessive burning of fossil fuels poses the greatest planetary threat to human health).

Somebody in the not too distant future is going to be given the job of rationing this expensive health care (I’ve given up on even having a national or rational discussion about limiting the outrageous prices that the private sector charges for these treatments). Samuelson is right in his conclusion that “the only questions are when and on whose terms” this rationing will take place.

For my money, I’d rather have a government-appointed panel, chosen by our elected leaders, that has to submit its recommendations to Congress do it. The alternative is having an insurance company’s hidden panel make those decisions. Those decisions will be made without public oversight, and then announced to the world through the mechanism of price, with those who can’t afford the tariff being the ones who experience the rationing.

TAGGED:health care reformMedicare
Share This Article
Facebook Copy Link Print
Share

Stay Connected

1.5kFollowersLike
4.5kFollowersFollow
2.8kFollowersPin
136kSubscribersSubscribe

Latest News

women dental care
What Is a Smile Makeover and How Much Does It Cost?
Dental health
June 30, 2025
HIPAA-Compliant Messaging Apps
Top HIPAA-Compliant Messaging Apps for Healthcare Teams
Global Healthcare Policy & Law Technology
June 25, 2025
recovering from injury
Rebuilding After Injury: Path to Physical and Emotional Recovery
News
June 22, 2025
scientist using microscope
When Healthcare Ends, the Legal Process Begins: What Families Should Know About Probate and Medical Estates
Global Healthcare
June 18, 2025

You Might also Like

Athenahealth Explains Why It’s Buying Epocrates (transcript)

January 31, 2013
authority expert success
BusinessFinance

Getting the Best from Your Healthcare Advertising Agency

April 6, 2014

Case Study: Developing a National Audience for a Urologist

December 3, 2011

Arena and Qnexa Get Good News

January 11, 2012
Subscribe
Subscribe to our newsletter to get our newest articles instantly!
Follow US
© 2008-2025 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Username or Email Address
Password

Lost your password?