The article on personalized medicine was very interesting.
I have no particular medical knowledge, but I would make a couple of points:
a. I believe that almost all the patients who receive the specialty drugs are well-insured, so they do NOT suffer financial ruin. Recent reforms to Medicare Part D have made it even less likely that patients will go broke.
b. The cost of $50,000 a month for some drugs is not a fact of nature. It is an amount that we allow the drug companies to impose. Maybe this is needed to cover their research costs (which I doubt), or maybe it is just highway robbery. See Merrill Goozner or Dean Baker for more insights.
The article on personalized medicine was very interesting.
I have no particular medical knowledge, but I would make a couple of points:
a. I believe that almost all the patients who receive the specialty drugs are well-insured, so they do NOT suffer financial ruin. Recent reforms to Medicare Part D have made it even less likely that patients will go broke.
b. The cost of $50,000 a month for some drugs is not a fact of nature. It is an amount that we allow the drug companies to impose. Maybe this is needed to cover their research costs (which I doubt), or maybe it is just highway robbery. See Merrill Goozner or Dean Baker for more insights.
It could be worse. Cuomo’s health director could have been hired to eliminate the Social Security deficit.