Health Affairs is late to the party when it comes to personalized medicine. It has a roundtable of oncologists talking about treating cancers and people differently right off the bat like it was something new. Better late than never. But some people still like using blunt instruments. Here is the managed care view of comparative effectiveness courtesy of Lee Newcomer business leader of Oncology Services at UnitedHealthcare in Minneapolis.
"Newcomer also argues that, following the example of the United Kingdom, the U.S. government should establish cost-effectiveness guidelines: “The government could say that anything more than $40,000 per year of life gained is unacceptable.â€
As we all know by now, the UK has the lowest five year survival rates across the board for all cancers and has increasing death rates for many cancers thanks to this approach.
My suggestion to Newcomer: Apply that metric to you and your family. Look them in the face and tell them that their lives are not worth more than a Honda Prius.
http://us.f328.mail.yahoo.com/ym/ShowLetter?MsgId=1664_41790369_156635_1276_12940_0_674597_31516_348646986&Idx=9&YY=53821&y5beta=yes&y5beta=yes&inc=25&order=down&sort=date&pos=0&view=&head=&box=Inbox
"Newcomer also argues that, following the example of the United Kingdom, the U.S. government should establish cost-effectiveness guidelines: “The government could say that anything more than $40,000 per year of life gained is unacceptable.â€
As we all know by now, the UK has the lowest five year survival rates across the board for all cancers and has increasing death rates for many cancers thanks to this approach.
My suggestion to Newcomer: Apply that metric to you and your family. Look them in the face and tell them that their lives are not worth more than a Honda Prius.
http://us.f328.mail.yahoo.com/ym/ShowLetter?MsgId=1664_41790369_156635_1276_12940_0_674597_31516_348646986&Idx=9&YY=53821&y5beta=yes&y5beta=yes&inc=25&order=down&sort=date&pos=0&view=&head=&box=Inbox
