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BOSTON – Cancer patients, brace yourselves. Many new drug treatments cost nearly $100,000 a year, sparking fresh debate about how much a few months more of life is worth.
The latest is Provenge, a first-of-a-kind therapy approved in April.
$93,000 cancer drug: How much is a life worth? - Yahoo! News (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100927/ap_on_he_me/us_med_costly_cancer_drugs - broken link)
From that article: "I would not spend that money," because the benefit doesn't seem worth it, says Svensson, 80, a former corporate finance officer from Bedford, Mass.
From that article: "I would not spend that money," because the benefit doesn't seem worth it, says Svensson, 80, a former corporate finance officer from Bedford, Mass.
The guy is 80. He's probably seen his grandkids get married. What else is there for him?
For a mother of young children, the cost is def worth it.Yea, it's a few months of gross income per a year... but atleast those children will have memories of their mother.
From that article: "I would not spend that money," because the benefit doesn't seem worth it, says Svensson, 80, a former corporate finance officer from Bedford, Mass.
Quote:
Originally Posted by NJBest
The guy is 80. He's probably seen his grandkids get married. What else is there for him?
For a mother of young children, the cost is def worth it.Yea, it's a few months of gross income per a year... but atleast those children will have memories of their mother.
Each scenario varies.
I think the point here is that the guy made his own decision.
It gets dangerous when someone, or a group of people, rationalize the value of health care for someone else.
Higher costs seem to be more accepted for cancer treatment than for other illnesses, but there's no rule on how much is too much, he said.
Insurers usually are the ones to decide, and they typically pay if Medicare pays.
Medicare usually pays if the federal Food and Drug Administration has approved the use.
So it gets back to that bastion of efficiency the FDA. Oh goody.
The drug I take costs about $200,000 a year. I have to take it for the rest of my life. Luckily, this past February the monopoly broke and there are 2 new competing therapies which will HOPEFULLY drive prices down.
Medication is expensive...but it's sad that I WISH my meds only cost $93,000.
The drug I take costs about $200,000 a year. I have to take it for the rest of my life. Luckily, this past February the monopoly broke and there are 2 new competing therapies which will HOPEFULLY drive prices down.
Medication is expensive...but it's sad that I WISH my meds only cost $93,000.
The big difference is the drug in the op will only extend life for an extremely short time.
The title might be more appropriate if it asked, "How much is a few months of life worth" " It costs $93,000 and adds four months' survival, on average"
The answer in either case probably changes a lot depending on whether you're talking about yourself(or a loved one) or a stranger and/or whether or not you would have to pay for it out of pocket
Is this drug capable of actually treating the cancer into remission or does it merely buy someone with stage four terminal cancer another month of agony and suffering?
Unless its actually capable of putting the cancer into remission then it should not be on the market. We need to focus of drugs to put cancer in remission and not on drugs to extend suffering.
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