NHS sets a goal of providing the first treatments within two months of a confirmed diagnosis. In September 2019, the NHS fell short of this goal, with only 78.7 percent of cancer patients receiving their first treatment in that time frame. By September 2022, the timeliness of cancer treatment had eroded further, with only 60.5 percent of new cancer patients receiving treatment within the time frame called for in NHS guidance.
Friday Links
- Scott Atlas reviews our experience with Covid: mortality rates, natural immunity, vaccines, lockdowns, and more.
- Can Chat GPT replace doctors?
- More than 8 million Americans with diabetes rely on insulin; yet surveys find that one in six people who use insulin say they ration the drug because of the cost.
- Elizabeth Warren report finds that medigap insurers do what every other insurer does: reward agents for sales of its policies. Of course, seniors in Medicare Advantage plans don’t need medigap policies.
- Eli Lilly’s announcement that it will cap at $35 a month what patients pay out of their own pockets for the company’s insulin has two problems: (1) the company already had such a policy in place, and (2) the company says the cap will not have much, if any, effect on what many people are actually paying.
Walmart to Double its Primary Care Business to 75 Clinics
There is a Walmart about a mile from my house. Inside my Walmart is a pharmacy and Quest Diagnostics. I’ve used both at various times. A Walmart a few miles away has a low-cost veterinary clinic that I’ve used as well. Another location near me has an optometrist on site.
Free Market Competition Is the Way to Lower the Cost of Insulin and Other Drugs
In 1951, Congress stopped letting drug makers decide which drugs they would sell over the counter and which would require a prescription and turned that decision over to the FDA. Drugs already available without a prescription were “grandfathered.”
That is why, to this day, people can buy regular and NPH insulin without a prescription. Because those forms of insulin are off‐patent and because consumers comparison‐shop, they are relatively cheap: “ReliOn,” a brand available from Walmart, can cost as little as $25 a vial. Evidence suggests that prescription requirements correlate with higher drug prices and that removing them correlates with reductions in drug prices.