Patient Power

Health “reform” vs. medical technology & innovation

From a new Cato Institute policy analysis, Bending the Productivity Curve: Why America Leads the World in Medical Innovation:

The health care issues commonly considered most important today — controlling costs and covering the uninsured — arguably should be regarded as secondary to innovation, inasmuch as a medical treatment must first be invented before its costs can be reduced and its use extended to everyone. …

In three of the four general categories of innovation examined in this paper — basic science, diagnostics, and therapeutics — the United States has contributed more than any other country, and in some cases, more than all other countries combined. …

… When the United States subsidizes medical innovation, the whole world benefits. That is a virtue of the American system that is not reflected in comparative life expectancy and mortality statistics.

… Expanding price controls, government health care programs, and health insurance regulation, on the other hand, could hinder America’s ability to innovate.

Reason.tv has a video on medical innovation and why profits are good:

• Does medical technology increase health care costs?
• Health rationing and you
• Health care bill punishes medical device innovation
• Will health care bill bring Canadian horror stories to U.S. patients?
• Should we expect the same treatment as professional athletes?