Health Care thoughts: Reality is Ugly

by Tom aka Rusty Rustbelt

Health Care: Reality is Ugly

An Indiana baby with an extremely rare condition will not be receiving $500,000 experimental surgery at Duke because the State of Indiana cannot afford to pay the bill for the surgery.

The immediate howls of protest are directed at the Republican governor, but there are bigger issues here, and a comparative effectiveness program designed by Democrats could easily come to the same decision.

Stipulated, no one wants to see a baby die. No one. However…..

No system has infinite resources, and if the money was spent it would be care taken away from some other Indiana residents. Even if the economy were better.

On the other hand (as an economist might say) many common procedures were once experimental, that is how new surgeries and new cures are developed.

Fifty years ago this was easier, medicine was relatively primitive and babies died (including my infant cousins) because nothing could be done. Now, we have difficult, terrible decisions to make.

HT: Yahoo News