NEW YORK TIMES: Saying they can no longer ignore the rising prices of health care, some of the most influential medical groups in the nation are recommending that doctors weigh the costs, not just the effectiveness of treatments, as they make decisions about patient care…
“We understand that we doctors should be and are stewards of the larger society as well as of the patient in our examination room,” said Dr. Lowell E. Schnipper, the chairman of a task force on value in cancer care at the American Society of Clinical Oncology.
In practical terms, new guidelines being developed by the medical groups could result in doctors choosing one drug over another for cost reasons or even deciding that a particular treatment — at the end of life, for example — is too expensive. In the extreme, some critics have said that making treatment decisions based on cost is a form of rationing… (more)
EDITOR: Age must be a factor in medical plans approving how much is to be spent on treatment. We cannot expect physicians to make such decisions strictly on their own. Moreover, they often have a vested interest in herdulean treatment. Rationing should not be thought of as a dirty word. It is a matter of weighing the greater good when spending scarce common resources.
Who gets to decide the greater good and what if they are wrong. When will we see a matrix of ages and treatments allowed. Isn’t it fair for people to know these things before signing up? How does the system guarantee fairness or will the people with the gold rule?
EDITOR: Democracy is imperfect but it is still the best way to assure the fairness and the common good. Right now we have a system that consumes almost twice as much of our Gross Domestic Product (18%) than health care does for other advanced nations and mediocrity except for the wealthiest.
As we have so often pointed out, this mess is the unintended consequence of employers offering health care during World War II when they needed workers and wages were fixed.