[HN Gopher] High cost of cancer care in the U.S. doesn't reduce ...
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       High cost of cancer care in the U.S. doesn't reduce mortality rates
        
       Author : gumby
       Score  : 73 points
       Date   : 2022-05-29 17:14 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (news.yale.edu)
 (TXT) w3m dump (news.yale.edu)
        
       | freediver wrote:
       | The relatively poor average quality of healthcare was made
       | apparent in covid pandemic where US had among the highest
       | mortality rates and deaths per capita in the developed world [1]
       | 
       | And I do not need data to tell me this, just overal experience
       | comparing it to my previous experience getting healthcare in
       | Europe leaves a lot to be desired.
       | 
       | Getting medical care in US is hard with a lot of
       | bureaucratic/insurance overhead and when you finally get to the
       | doctor they are more prone to follow strict procedures/checklists
       | to reduce liability instead of being genuinly curious about your
       | condition.
       | 
       | And all this while most have to pay astronomical price for
       | healthcare out of their pocket. Not sure that the case for
       | privatised healthcare can hold up with these results.
       | 
       | [1] https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/data/mortality
        
         | jjeaff wrote:
         | While your premise may not be wrong, I'm not so sure that COVID
         | statistics can tell us much between countries. There are a
         | great deal of countries that are either wholly inadequate, or
         | purposefully misleading when it comes to their true COVID
         | numbers.
         | 
         | For example, India has an official COVID death count of around
         | 500k. The WHO has made their own estimates and believe their
         | death count to be closer to 5 million, ten times the official
         | number.
        
           | kwhitefoot wrote:
           | The thing to look at is the excess death rate.
        
           | blipvert wrote:
           | Is the best response that you have is to say "We probably
           | better than an underdeveloped country like India"?
           | 
           | Talk about damned by faint praise ...
        
         | mlindner wrote:
         | > The relatively poor average quality of healthcare was made
         | apparent in covid pandemic where US had among the highest
         | mortality rates and deaths per capita in the developed world
         | 
         | This has nothing to do with healthcare quality.
        
       | david_l_lin wrote:
       | > Findings of this study suggest that the US expenditure on
       | cancer care may not be commensurate with improved cancer
       | outcomes.
       | 
       | Well yeah, the cost of healthcare in the US is astronomical.
       | https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/health-...
       | 
       | This would be the same across diseases, not just cancer.
        
         | pessimizer wrote:
         | Since we spend twice as much as anyone else on healthcare but
         | rank somewhere around 50th in lifespan, it would be weird if we
         | were getting better outcomes in any area due to greater
         | spending.
        
           | kurupt213 wrote:
           | The average lifespan numbers are rigged. Most countries don't
           | count an infant delivered alive but terminal in their infant
           | mortality numbers. Like when a placenta ruptures and you have
           | an emergency birth before 28 or 30 weeks. Those don't count
           | in most if not all of Europe.
           | 
           | In the US, every live birth counts, even if it only lasts
           | minutes
           | 
           | I don't know if that completely makes up the difference, but
           | the real disparity is nowhere near the numbers that get
           | thrown around. It's apples vs oranges.
           | 
           | Covid positives were a similar situation.
           | 
           | Most countries would not report a positive Covid patient
           | unless the test was positive and the patient was symptomatic.
        
             | LodeOfCode wrote:
             | >I don't know if that completely makes up the difference,
             | but the real disparity is nowhere near the numbers that get
             | thrown around. It's apples vs oranges.
             | 
             | The CDC[2020] reports an infant mortality rate of <0.6%.
             | Excluding _all_ of it would only increase life expectancy
             | from 78.8 to 79.2
             | 
             | [2020]https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db395.ht
             | m
        
             | dpierce9 wrote:
             | Data collection differences are well-known to the people
             | who produce cross-country numbers. Further, your specific
             | observation about when births are counted in the US is flat
             | wrong. We have 54 ways of doing things. Furthermore, not
             | everything is a conspiracy. Reasonable people do things
             | differently. To suggest these numbers are rigged is glib.
        
       | SoftTalker wrote:
       | > "The pattern of spending more and getting less is well-
       | documented in the U.S. healthcare system; now we see it in cancer
       | care, too," said co-author Elizabeth Bradley
       | 
       | It's a cynical viewpoint, but I can forgive those who think that
       | modern health care is mostly a way to extract as much wealth as
       | possible from sick people before they die.
        
       | MauroIksem wrote:
       | Cancer Care costs are insane..my mom is being treated for breast
       | cancer..each chemo infusion cost $65k to her insurance company.
       | Her surgery to remove her left breast cost $165k. 5k going to the
       | surgeon fee while the rest was a facility fee. It's been less
       | than a year now and the insurance has paid out almost a million
       | dollars.
        
         | grecy wrote:
         | My Mum was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer - had 2.5 years
         | of radiation, chemo and monthly doctor visits. Saw many
         | specialists, etc. etc.
         | 
         | Never saw a single bill, and in fact was paid actual money for
         | the inconvenience of having to drive 3.5 hours to a bigger
         | facility that had equipment the local small-town hospital did
         | not. Also got a free apartment to stay in for those out of town
         | appointments, meal allowance, etc.
         | 
         | Mum had never paid a cent in insurance premiums in her life,
         | etc.
        
       | xqcgrek2 wrote:
       | Not mentioned: the US research complex and healthcare spending
       | subsidizing development of state-of-the-art therapies for other
       | countries.
       | 
       | They don't bear the cost so expecting the US to do better at same
       | or lower cost is structually impossible.
        
         | biorach wrote:
         | You'd really need to show some numbers to back this up.
         | 
         | Is the cost of funding the "research complex" included in the
         | expenditure on health care?
         | 
         | At least some of this cost is born by the Federal government,
         | foundations etc, is this counted as general health care
         | expenditure (I doubt it)
         | 
         | Some of the research is funded by companies - since they sell
         | globally this funding cannot be counted as purely of US origin.
         | 
         | Other countries also have significant health research - e.g.
         | UK, France, Germany - your point would also apply to them.
         | 
         | Overall your point is dubious, and vague - you'd need to
         | present some solid numbers to back it up.
        
           | mjewkes wrote:
           | Hey biorach - I would suggest:
           | https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB9412.html and The
           | Great American Drug Deal, by Peter Kolchinsky.
           | 
           | Specific claims:
           | 
           | - The US pays more for new drugs than the rest of the world
           | 
           | - The US contribution is disproportionate, and is major
           | driver of the drug development industry.
           | 
           | -If the US paid less for new drugs, the entire industry would
           | slow, and we would have fewer more effective treatments.
           | 
           | ...
           | 
           | Routine medical procedures being crazy expensive is unrelated
           | and pathological.
        
             | raverbashing wrote:
             | You're assuming that most of the "extra" money goes back in
             | research and not to shareholders and management bonuses
             | 
             | Given how pharma companies operate, I kinda doubt it.
        
               | mjewkes wrote:
               | No assumptions. The rand article addresses that directly.
        
         | cjbenedikt wrote:
         | Do you have any data to backup your claim? For example Cuban
         | healthcare/treatment/outcome is excellent based on its own
         | research. Roche(Swiss) nor Merck ( German, not related to US
         | Merck) don't benefit much (if at all) from US subsidies.
        
           | lr4444lr wrote:
           | Cuba's data is pretty suspect. Too lazy to find it at the
           | moment, but I recall reading that their cancer rates or
           | deaths were some absurd fraction of what would be expected
           | given smoking rates even compared with better developed
           | countries. They also had some eye raising way of counting
           | perinatal infant death that makes their infant mortality
           | rates look a lot lower.
        
           | mjewkes wrote:
           | >Do you have any data to backup your claim?
           | 
           | I would suggest The Great American Drug Deal, by Peter
           | Kolchinsky.
           | 
           | Also - https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB9412.html
           | 
           | >For example Cuban healthcare/treatment/outcome is excellent
           | based on its own research
           | 
           | Cuba does not contribute substantially to global
           | pharmaceutical research.
           | 
           | >Roche(Swiss) nor Merck ( German, not related to US Merck)
           | don't benefit much (if at all) from US subsidies.
           | 
           | Roche makes 55% of its revenue from US drug sales
           | (https://assets.cwp.roche.com/f/126832/x/db9d31e8a7/fb20e.pdf
           | p22)
           | 
           | EMD Serono (formerly Merck KgAA) is similar.
           | 
           | These revenues are the topline driver of the drug development
           | industry.
        
           | ch4s3 wrote:
           | Cuba has developed a few drugs and exports doctors as chattel
           | for foreign income but their actual healthcare is abysmal.
           | They larger operate without antibiotics, pain killers, and at
           | times clean water. They can't provide 24h power to hospitals
           | so most modern tech is pointless there. The notion that
           | anything else is true is just Cuban propaganda. There are
           | tons of accounts from NGOs and doctors who have defected.
        
         | byecancer21 wrote:
         | This mirrors my personal experience. To make a treatment
         | decision, against the advice of my local doctors, that was key
         | to survival I relied on US research.
         | 
         | To compare costs: For an extremely rare cancer, total cost of
         | treatment was 100k EUR in Germany, whereas US patients report
         | case costs of >2m USD.
         | 
         | Part of these savings stem from the public healthcare system
         | not providing adequate treatment, while strictly necessary for
         | a reasonable chance of survival in this case. What happens in
         | Germany then is the amazing doctors do stuff anyway (if you can
         | convince them), bill whatever they can, and write off the
         | remainder. Profits from privately insured patients make up for
         | this shortfall here.
         | 
         | Public healthcare being adequate is somewhat of a myth, for
         | Germany at least.
        
         | awinter-py wrote:
         | on the research side, this would tend to _reduce_ prices,
         | right? clinical trials usually aren 't charging (per [1]).
         | 
         | this 2017 article[2] claims that the US pharma $ premium is
         | more than R&D spending for 13 of 15 top pharma cos. (Note: this
         | isn't even talking about profit, it's talking about the _excess
         | profit_ from higher US prices). Maybe you can make an argument
         | that R &D is lockstep to margins, and would shrink if margins
         | went down?
         | 
         | 1. https://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/sachrp-
         | committee/recommendations/no...
         | 
         | 2.
         | https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/forefront.20170307....
        
       | nextos wrote:
       | As a researcher in the field and someone who has seen a few
       | friends go due to cancer, the current standard of care is very
       | frustrating.
       | 
       | I believe cancer is orders of magnitude easier to treat when it
       | is still asymptomatic but detectable using metrics such as
       | circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA). However, it is taking ages to
       | deploy this technology because healthcare struggles with any
       | data-oriented solution.
        
         | vimy wrote:
         | Is this something private labs offer?
        
           | nextos wrote:
           | Yes, and it's not very expensive. Many EU & US labs would do
           | a test for you for ~$300--$500.
           | 
           | I guess it'd be really cheap if it was deployed nationwide.
           | Furthermore, predictions would be a lot more sensitive /
           | specific as they would be tuned with millions of datapoints.
           | 
           | It's the same for other technologies such as TCR-seq. They
           | could theoretically bring immense prevention benefits, but
           | it's really hard to bootstrap them without collaboration from
           | big healthcare systems as you need thousands of datapoints to
           | get it going. Very frustrating.
        
         | david_l_lin wrote:
         | Healthcare is notoriously slow with adoption of new technology.
         | IMO this is because healthcare is fee-for-service, which is
         | basically incompatible with prevention. A movement to value-
         | based care would vastly improve adoption of preventive and
         | personalized healthcare.
        
           | lordgrenville wrote:
           | The HMO model was basically designed to bring in an element
           | of value-based reimbursement. For example, the CMS capitation
           | payments to Medicare Advantage plans are weighted by (inter
           | alia) health outcomes.
        
           | wtch98 wrote:
           | OK that explains a few countries which have a fee-for-service
           | model, what about those countries incentivized to prevent
           | problems? Do they take new technology on faster?
        
         | adammunich wrote:
         | how can people take action themselves here
        
           | nextos wrote:
           | I guess creating startups that offer polished ctDNA solutions
           | or pressing local governments to make healthcare more
           | streamlined, perhaps even with healthcare IT startups too.
           | 
           | The problem is that most healthcare systems are too
           | fragmented and not geared towards prevention. Hence, one
           | faces a huge uphill battle.
        
       | TrackerFF wrote:
       | A bit unrelated - but I always thought the American concept of
       | "annual checkups" sounded a bit weird. Here where I come from,
       | Norway, that is not a thing - unless you have / or have had some
       | serious illness in the past. Obviously cancer patients, or those
       | in remission, get checked up every x months.
       | 
       | But for regular people, it's pretty much not a thing. It also
       | made me wonder: How much more would it cost our health-care
       | system, if everyone took advantage of things like annual
       | checkups, or going through those extensive screens/tests that a
       | lot of American patients go through. I guess the fear of
       | malpractice lawsuits, higher insurance rates, or whatever make
       | the medical centers in US a bit more incentivized to catch
       | anything at all.
       | 
       | But AFAIK, we don't have any higher mortality rate here than
       | those living in the US. Earlier this year I went to the doctor,
       | because I was feeling a bit lethargic - turned out I had severe
       | vitamin D deficiency. But other than that, it must be 7-8 years
       | since I talked with a doctor.
       | 
       | (But credit where credit is due - the US seems like an excellent
       | option IF you really need to get treated for certain cancers.
       | It's not like we have "death panels" or awful long wait time
       | here, but I know patients that have gone to the US to get
       | treatment - on their own bill - for cancers that were deemed too
       | advanced for treatment, here in Norway.)
        
         | pessimizer wrote:
         | > I know patients that have gone to the US to get treatment -
         | on their own bill - for cancers that were deemed too advanced
         | for treatment, here in Norway.
         | 
         | The US is outstanding at taking money from sick people, just
         | not any better at getting them well.
        
           | [deleted]
        
         | raverbashing wrote:
         | Well, overdiagnosis/overtreatment _is_ an issue
         | 
         | Both approaches have pros and cons, because while an early
         | diagnostic of some diseases can make a huge difference, there
         | are also false-positives and needless invasive procedures
         | 
         | (And I guess the people that are the most oblivious about their
         | health are the ones that are more prone to have lifestyle
         | related conditions - some people have never measured their
         | blood pressure or blood glucose)
        
         | paulcole wrote:
         | Part of the reason why it's a thing in the US is that a huge
         | number of people _do_ have /have had a serious illness in the
         | past: heart disease, diabetes, obesity, etc. Part of the reason
         | they have those illnesses is because they neglected their
         | health due to the cost of prevention.
        
           | chmod600 wrote:
           | What's the cost of preventing those diseases? Aren't those
           | mostly diet/lifestyle?
        
             | paulcole wrote:
             | Diet and lifestyle aren't free.
        
           | trgn wrote:
           | Is this really the case though?
           | 
           | The annual check up is something that's been advocated a long
           | time, 50s at least, and predates the obesity epidemic.
           | 
           | The annual checkup is a symptom of a therapeutic view of
           | health care, a view which cannot be divorced from modernism.
           | The body is a machine which must be oiled and greased,
           | frequently submitted to tests and expert investigation, so it
           | can be tuned perfectly, just like a car, like a machine.
           | 
           | This really was _the_ obsession in post war America: that all
           | human activity (really, all of it), needed to be mediated by
           | technology. This included personal transportation, education,
           | cooking, ... and also maintaining our health.
           | 
           | And that is where we are now; a chronically medicated
           | population and a bureaucracy optimized to propagate this
           | state of affairs. The annual checkup fits perfectly in this
           | mindset.
        
         | dghlsakjg wrote:
         | Just FYI, annual checkups are recommended, but certainly
         | something that a lot of young people skip. A quick google shows
         | that only around 60% of Americans see a doctor yearly.
         | 
         | The checkup also isn't a battery of tests unless you are at an
         | age or condition for that. For a healthy 20 something that goes
         | it's basically the doctor checking your blood pressure and
         | asking if anything has changed.
        
           | kurthr wrote:
           | Yeah, that annual check-up is a 15min consult with maybe a
           | blood test or a mail in colon cancer test even if you're 55+.
           | Many people will completely ignore extreme signals of
           | unhealthiness (pain, shortness of breath, trouble sleeping),
           | because it's "normal" while another group simply can't
           | believe they don't have some treatable disease to explain all
           | their aliments.
           | 
           | This research was about just cancer detection/treatment, but
           | it's worrying that once they only mention correcting for
           | smoking rates (umm duh, that's the least you need to do)...
           | but then they don't mention weight... so weird?
        
         | bnjms wrote:
         | > It's not like we have "death panels" or awful long wait time
         | here, but I know patients that have gone to the US to get
         | treatment - on their own bill - for cancers that were deemed
         | too advanced for treatment, here in Norway.)
         | 
         | This sounds like the right way to go, but I want you to
         | understand this is exactly what people mean when they say
         | "death panels".
        
           | tetraca wrote:
           | The argument never made sense to me because that's surely not
           | much different from how a private insurance company in the US
           | already operates - you can bet they have a team of actuaries
           | who has calculated the exact point it's probably not worth
           | their money to try to save a patient.
        
         | decebalus1 wrote:
         | Not to defend anything about the American model (I personally
         | hate it and think it's broken) but the annual checkup is a very
         | cheap way of dealing with a possibly expensive condition.
         | 
         | The checkup is non-intrusive and for presumably healthy people
         | consists of a physical, basic blood tests (glucose and some
         | metabolic indicators + infection markers) and a blood pressure
         | check. As an example, it's way cheaper to find out you have
         | pre-diabetes this way, than to go to the doctor with symptoms
         | when you have full on diabetes. This is mainly the reason why
         | insurances pay for these in full, as they're part of
         | 'preventive care'.
         | 
         | > How much more would it cost our health-care system, if
         | everyone took advantage of
         | 
         | Annual checkups are definitely not the reason healthcare costs
         | are sky-high in the US.
        
           | kwhitefoot wrote:
           | > the annual checkup is a very cheap way of dealing with a
           | possibly expensive condition.
           | 
           | Is it? Or is it something that just seems obvious?
        
             | alexanderdmitri wrote:
             | Both if the checkups help catch issues early or avoid them
             | [0][1].
             | 
             | [0] https://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2019/18_0625.htm
             | 
             | [1] https://www.bbc.com/news/health-35073966
        
         | lr4444lr wrote:
         | Wait a sec: mammograms, postate exams, colonoscopies? You don't
         | have these regular screenings when you hit a certain age?
         | AFAIK, the data is very good on the early detection power of
         | these exams.
        
           | pessimizer wrote:
           | > mammograms, prostate exams
           | 
           | For these two, the data is very good that we're doing them
           | too early.
        
             | deskamess wrote:
             | What is the right time? Here in Ontario, Canada a letter
             | gets sent at around 50 (I think) asking you to do a FIT
             | test. Call your Dr, get the kit, do the self-test and mail
             | it in.
        
         | sneak wrote:
         | It's also a Japanese concept. Regular low-cost health
         | screenings can catch big problems early.
         | 
         | You don't get annual bloodwork performed? Does your cat/dog?
        
           | kwhitefoot wrote:
           | Also from Norway: no I don't, nor anyone else I know,
           | certainly not any pets.
           | 
           | Women get regular mammograms after a certain age; prostate
           | examinations are offered if you are concerned and if anything
           | is found then more frequent checks will be offered but
           | nothing like annual checks for people not known to have a
           | problem.
        
             | sneak wrote:
             | I wonder if us/jp are the outliers here, or if Norway is.
        
       | lordnacho wrote:
       | We shouldn't expect outcomes to be much different, because when
       | someone gets cancer in the rich world, they get treated with
       | whatever medical science thinks is best. Contrast that with an
       | ordinary purchase like a washing machine.
       | 
       | What's left when you're definitely going to buy the Cadillac is
       | that the price depends on how much money you have, and Americans
       | tend to be wealthy.
       | 
       | It also depends on factors relating to restriction of
       | competition. If there's only so many doctors, which is the case
       | because they restrict how many can be trained, doctors can
       | extract more. Add to that the fear of litigation (friend dated a
       | girl whose father made a living suing US doctors) and they end up
       | spending money on tests that they wouldn't in the rest of the
       | west. Possibly collective purchasing in national systems means
       | something too, not sure.
        
       | awinter-py wrote:
       | this 2020 paper is probably a better source
       | 
       | Association Between Spending and Outcomes for Patients With
       | Cancer https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6994252/
       | 
       | ^ looks into more granular data, surveys sources that show +/0/-
       | correlation between spending + outcomes, compares end-of-life vs
       | non-end-of-life, cites a few studies about specific cancer types,
       | wasteful spending. Does a better job of investigating
       | international change in spending vs outcomes over time.
       | 
       | the OP globocan paper is using a country average; averages don't
       | tell you that much, esp in the US.
       | 
       | cancer data is _very granular_ these days (NY mandates per-case
       | reporting, for example
       | https://www.health.ny.gov/statistics/cancer/registry/about.h...).
       | would be interesting to have a live model somewhere of outcomes
       | by cancer, stage, comorbidity + hospital
        
       | mlindner wrote:
       | This discounts the fact that the vast amount of money spent on
       | Medical practices is in the US which causes the advances here.
       | Once the advances happen though they're global, so the US does
       | not get the benefits from that money.
       | 
       | This "tragedy of the commons" with regards to medical science
       | causes everyone to misattribute things. Europe for example can
       | pay little money for their medical practices because of the US
       | bankrolling the research and drug development that allows them to
       | do so.
       | 
       | One route to fixing things in the US, if we really wish to do so,
       | is to create by law a "most favored" status for the US such that
       | if a US drug company sells outside the country, they must sell
       | the drug in the US for the same price as the lowest price they
       | sell it to any other country. This would largely fix our
       | expensive healthcare, but would also harm the world heavily in
       | advancement.
        
         | mjewkes wrote:
         | I work in the drug development industry, its a shame this has
         | been downvoted, it's largely true - at least for new drug
         | innovation. The fact that routine procedures are expensive in
         | the US is unrelated.
         | 
         | The US is ~35% of the global pharmaceutical industry, which is
         | the topline driver of new drug development.
         | 
         | When the US pays top dollar for new drugs, it does effectively
         | subsidize European access to the new research.
         | 
         | >Do you have any data to backup your claim?
         | 
         | I would suggest
         | https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB9412.html
         | 
         | or the Great American Drug Deal, by Peter Kolchinsky.
        
         | biorach wrote:
         | > they must sell the drug in the US for the same price as the
         | lowest price they sell it to any other country. This would
         | largely fix our expensive healthcare, but would also harm the
         | world heavily in advancement
         | 
         | Drug prices are far from the leading cause of the high cost of
         | US healthcare.
         | 
         | The whole system is deeply dysfunctional with massive perverse
         | incentives.
        
         | biorach wrote:
         | I don't believe that there is any research backing this.
         | 
         | Do you have any articles, papers etc from reputable sources to
         | back this up? Or is this just personal speculation?
        
           | mjewkes wrote:
           | The claim is largely true for drug development, but not for
           | routine procedures. Those are expensive for unrelated, and
           | largely pathological, reasons.
           | 
           | I would suggest:
           | https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB9412.html or The
           | Great American Drug Deal, by Peter Kolchinsky.
        
         | mrtksn wrote:
         | Do you have the numbers to back these claims? Is the
         | extravagant money spend on healthcare in US actually drives
         | everything ahead? Do countries like UK, Germany, Switzerland
         | and Japan lag behind due to the smaller amounts spent?
        
           | mlindner wrote:
           | No they don't lag behind, because as I mentioned, once
           | they're developed the drugs are available globally, and often
           | reverse engineered and re-sold by less scrupulous countries
           | that don't care about intellectual property.
           | 
           | As to your first question, I don't have an answer for you off
           | hand.
        
             | mrtksn wrote:
             | Okay, what are the sources of this claim? I'm kind of
             | surprised that Germans and the British steal American
             | technology developed though bankruptcy inducing
             | childbirths.
             | 
             | edit: Hmm, if that's true then US must be actually behind
             | because every now and then the UK or some Europeans might
             | invent something but the Americans won't have it because
             | they respect intellectual property. Which means Americans
             | will have only American stuff but the Brits and the EU will
             | have Europeans stuff too.
        
               | mjewkes wrote:
               | The claim is largely true for drug development, but not
               | for routine procedures. Those are expensive for
               | unrelated, and largely pathological, reasons.
        
               | mrtksn wrote:
               | Okay, can you provide some literature on that claim? Do
               | you, by any chance refer to the European governments
               | buying directly from the pharma companies, thus getting
               | solid discount? Or is it the case that European companies
               | simply copy the drugs and move on? If that's the case, is
               | the US healthcare expensive because pharma companies need
               | to make money from the US sales only?
        
               | mjewkes wrote:
               | https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB9412.html and
               | The Great American Drug Deal, by Peter Kolchinsky.
               | Specific claims:
               | 
               | - The US pays more for new drugs than the rest of the
               | world
               | 
               | - The US contribution is disproportionate, and is major
               | driver of the drug development industry.
               | 
               | -If the US paid less for new drugs, the entire industry
               | would slow, and we would have fewer more effective
               | treatments.
        
       | auganov wrote:
       | Healthcare spending is almost as unequal as wealth, with a tiny
       | minority consuming most of the resources [0]. Don't have data for
       | this, but I see no reason not to assume a similar distribution
       | applies to groups like cancer sufferers. That is - those most
       | likely to die account for most of the cancer spending, while
       | those with good outcomes account for relatively little. If you
       | set a per person spending cap, you could expect a great reduction
       | in per capita spending without much impact on aggregate outcomes
       | (perhaps even an improvement). Which is exactly what public
       | healthcare systems effectively do by strict rationing and
       | discouraging private spending.
       | 
       | [0] https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-
       | collection/health-...
        
       | lr4444lr wrote:
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | rr808 wrote:
       | I kinda feel that with American's terrible diet and lack of
       | exercise, matching other countries' mortality shows actually a
       | pretty good medical system.
        
         | jphoward wrote:
         | But this is adjusting for the baseline illness, remember. This
         | isn't just age-standardised mortality rates. It's disease-
         | standardised mortality. Hopefully they've adjusted for
         | confounders...
        
       | asdff wrote:
       | Yeah, because people would rather go bankrupt than die. Doesn't
       | make it a good system.
        
         | salt-thrower wrote:
         | Very true. The headline is misleading though. The actual
         | article is framed as the inverse: "does spending more on cancer
         | care give the US better outcomes?" and the answer is no. We're
         | on par with other wealthy countries that spend half as much per
         | person on cancer care.
         | 
         | So yeah, the exorbitant costs of US healthcare do not correlate
         | with better health outcomes. Just worse financial outcomes.
        
           | [deleted]
        
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