Opinion

Patients, Not Insurers, Should Determine What a Life Is Worth

How much is a life worth?
Patients, Not Insurers, Should Determine What a Life Is Worth
Vice President Joe Biden at an event to honor former Vice President Walter Mondale at George Washington University, in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 20, 2015. Mark Wilson/Getty Images
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How much is a life worth?

According to Vice President Biden, who lost his son Beau to brain cancer, quite a lot. In telling the country he wouldn’t run for president, Mr. Biden pledged to push for a moonshot program to cure cancer because, he said, there’s nothing more important.

Unfortunately, a small group of doctors is trying to undermine such efforts. In JAMA Oncology, some oncologists are encouraging health insurers to adopt “value-based” pricing, in which drugs are priced based on how long they extend the average patient’s life. The physicians say an experimental, advanced-stage lung-cancer drug isn’t worth more than $7,800 because it extends average life expectancy by “only” 1.6 months.

Under the value-based approach, insurers would impose their priorities on their patients, instead of letting them choose.
Robert Goldberg
Robert Goldberg
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