November 5, 2004
I thought government and innovation were oxymorons, but the director of Medicare has come up with a somewhat radical new way of caring for its dependents, and I applaud the effort.Explained in this article in the NY Times, it talks about how Medicare has started paying for some insanely expensive medical procedures, but only if the patient agrees to submit themselves to tests, paid for by someone else (i.e. drug companies), to see if the treatment is effective. With a few possible exceptions, this is a win^3 solution. Medicare wins because not only is it helping people, but it's not wasting funds on hopeless procedures. Drug companies win becuase they can get real data on how their drugs perform. Patients win because they have someone to pay for the expensive procedures that may save their lives.
Posted by charr at 3:57 PM
Reader Comments
Who wins if the guy ends up deathly ill because of the drug?I'm just sayin'
That's a non-issue because it was his choice to take it in the first place. That's not affected by the new policy.
Dan: Everyone else wins if the guy ends up deathly ill, because then we won't get bad drugs. Sucks to be the deathly ill guy, the drug company, or the Gov't in this scenario, though.
|
Who wins if the guy ends up deathly ill because of the drug?I'm just sayin'
Posted by dan at November 5, 2004 5:38 PM