U.S. to Compare Medical Treatments

The $787 billion economic stimulus bill approved by Congress will, for the first time, provide substantial amounts of money for the federal government to compare the effectiveness of different treatments for the same illness. Spending on health care totaled $2.2 trillion or 16 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product in 2007. And if we don’t take care of this, it could rise to 25 percent, of the G.D.P. in 2025. Researchers often overlook the differences because their studies do not include enough women, blacks or Hispanics. “Some drugs appear to be more effective in women than in men, while other medicines are more likely to cause serious complications in women,” said Phyllis E. Greenberger.Under existing law, Medicare generally covers any treatment that is “reasonable and necessary for the diagnosis or treatment of illness or injury,” and the agency does not have clear legal authority to take costs into account when deciding whether to cover a particular treatment. This is an endless issue, and it will never be 100 percent solved, with the rise of treatments, our generation, my generation could be caught in this powerful monopoly. There’s no law out there to put a stable price, its only going up. If there’s alternative ways for someone to be treated for less, why not just come up with an average price, that even the low class citizens could afford?