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Politics : A US National Health Care System? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TimF who wrote (4993)	2/27/2008 1:08:38 PM
From: J_F_Shepard	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42652

"Apparently Avastin was approved in the UK" You are correct, it was approved for metastatic breast cancer in Europe in 2007. I wonder if that's due to the R&D that Europe doesn't do.... " the issue is the ability of people in a socialized health care system to pay extra for access to drugs or treatments that would otherwise be unavailable, without giving up access to the public system (or having to pay directly for the access in addition to their tax money that goes in to the system)." Mostly correct again..... the UK point of view follows this paragraph. In the meantime the UK NHS has approved Avastin for payment. But we have the same kind of issue here with our insurance plans. I have belonged to an HMO (I now belong to a Medicare HMO) for a number of years which includes drug coverage, but only for drugs in the "formulary". In many cases, even though the drug is in the formulary, they will only pay for a certain amount per month or year due to its cost. You are free to buy your own. February 21, 2008, 8:47 am U.K. Wrestles Over Private Payment for Health Care Posted by Jacob Goldstein The U.K.’s National Health Service wouldn’t pay for Avastin to treat Debbie Hirst’s advanced breast cancer. So Hirst decided to sell her house to buy the drug on her own. Then her doctor told her that if she did so, the rest of her treatment would no longer be paid for by the NHS, the New York Times reports. Patients in the U.K., where the government provides health care for all, have long gone outside the system to pay for things the government won’t, or to circumvent long waiting periods. But the government seems to be cracking down on patients who try to go buffet style, getting some care within the system and paying for some in the open market. Patients “cannot, in one episode of treatment, be treated on the NHS and then allowed, as part of the same episode and the same treatment, to pay money for more drugs,” the health secretary, Alan Johnson, told Parliament, according to the Times. “That way lies the end of the founding principles of the NHS,” which is supposed to guarantee equal care to all, regardless of ability to pay. The issue is particularly acute in cancer care, where many patients face the likelihood of death, and many new drugs are very expensive, though their benefits remain unclear for some patient groups. “You have a population that is informed and consumerist about how it behaves about health care information, and an NHS that can no longer afford to pay for everything for everybody,” a British cancer doc told the NYT. Avastin, sold by Genentech, has been approved for the treatment of advanced breast cancer in Europe, but not in the United States (though that could soon change). Earlier this month, Hirst was told that her condition had deteriorated and she could have Avastin, paid for by the NHS. Permalink \| Trackback URL: blogs.wsj.com