Monday, November 23, 2009

Stop the (Health Reform) Juggernaut (from Forbes.com) Health Issues ACSH

Jeff Stier at the American Council for Science and Health calls on Congress to...Stop the (Health Reform) Juggernaut. It's not so much that it will kill people. It will slow the development of new medicines, and lots of people will die who would otherwise live.

Pelosi's health care bill may cost the pharmaceutical industry $150 billion over a decade -- nearly double the amount the companies conceded when they cut a White House-approved deal with Sen. Max Baucus this summer. By making fewer resources available for R&D, the bill will stifle innovation. It is a sure-fire prescription for fewer new life-saving drugs.
Democrats in Washington are out to cut health care costs at the expense of the research-intensive (as opposed to generic) pharmaceutical industry. Yet drugs often improve the span and quality of life in a remarkably cost-effective way. Innovative new drugs have helped many patients avoid costly hospitalization. From 1980 to 2000, the number of days spend in the hospital for every 100 people fell from 129.7 to 56.6, a drop of 56% -- meaning that Americans avoided 206 million days of hospital care in 2000 alone, according to Medtap International, which provides health economics and outcomes-research services.
A study in 2000 sponsored by the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research concluded that increased use of a blood-thinning drug would prevent 40,000 strokes a year, saving $600 million annually. A 1997 study by the National Bureau of Economic Research found the costs of treatment per episode of major depression fell by 25% from 1991 to 1995, largely as a result of new medicines.
New drugs are also generally better than older ones at reducing mortality. In a study of patients who took drugs between January and June 2000, those who took newer medications were less likely to die by the end of 2002.

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