The Wall Street Journal recently had an article titled “Cost-Effectiveness of Cancer Drugs is Questioned” on a commentary from the Journal of the National Cancer Institute which

The WSJ should have kept the original title of the commentary, which is  far more provocative : “How much is life worth – the $440 Billion Question”

The essence of the argument the authors make is that Cancer drugs are very expensive and don’t lead to generally positive outcomes in relation to their cost. 

An example is given of Erbitux, a lung cancer drug which which extended a patient life by 1.2 months for a cost of up to $80,000

The authors suggest that drugs which extend cancer survival for less than two months should cost less than $20,000 for the treatment regimen.  Better save up your money if you’d like to live a few extra weeks to spend time with your family.

The great problem with all of this is that people have abdicated their own responsibility of their care to the federal government (Medicare) or private insurance companies.   With this comes the chilling debate the authors suggest:

The spiraling cost of cancer care, in particular the cost of cancer therapeutics that achieve only marginal benefits, is under increasing scrutiny. Although health-care professionals avoid putting a value on a life, our limited resources require that society address what counts as a benefit, the extent to which cost should factor in deliberations, and who should be involved in these decisions. Professional societies, such as the American Society of Clinical Oncology, government agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration, and insurance companies should be involved.

Somehow the PATIENT is left out of the debate!  Oops!

Welcome to the first taste of government controlled healthcare – we’re already there with Medicare