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Re: Cigna President Letter Regarding Liver Transplant TragedyFrom: art fougner, md (evsono@pipeline.com)Sat Jan 5 17:49:00 2008
Here's a different take on this case - http://www.healthbeatblog.org/2008/01/bad-cases-make.html ... Some of CIGNA’s critics also assume that, “if only we had single-payer system in the U.S., these things wouldn’t happen. But the truth is that had Nataline lived in the U.K., the chances that the government-sponsored healthcare system would have approved her transplant are slim. And, as Ford (a.k.a. California Medicine Man) points out, it’s not likely that she would have received the transplant in Canada either. “I’ve looked at some data and did some rudimentary (though not robust enough for publication) calculations that suggest that Canada does 32% fewer liver transplants than the U.S. on a per capita basis and the U.K. does 42% fewer.” In these countries, the government considers the cost-effectiveness of treatments, and no one, not even Nataline’s doctors, has suggested that the transplant might have given her even one or two extra years of healthy life. As Ford observes, the governments in single-payer countries must face the fact that when they spend money (and a liver) on one patient, they won’t have that money (or liver) to spend on someone else: “Every dollar spent represents a dollar that could have been spent elsewhere. Everything in medicine and economics is a trade-off...The facts of this case are unquestionably grim but can those advocating the public hangings at least imagine the possibility that some technologies may in fact be futile or at best experimental?” asks Ford. “And if such is the case, can these individuals not recognize the grotesque opportunity costs such expenses represent?” Read the whole thing ... Art
At Fri, 4 Jan 2008, Joanne Bulley, MD wrote:
>
-- art fougner, md "May The Wings of Liberty Never Lose a Feather." - Jack Burton
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