First a little background; across the pond in the UK, our friends the English, along with our not so good friends the Scots and those utterly annoying Welsh have a national health service, a part of which is The National Institute for Clinical Excellence, whose job it is to determine which drugs are worth putting on the health services formulary and which aren't. There has been some advocacy from government officials for NICE "reform." "Reform" of course meaning restructuring it in a way to maximize the profits of Big Pharma.
Wait. It gets better. According to the UK Guardian:
In a surprising intervention, the US deputy health secretary, Alex Azar, forced the issue in London yesterday, ahead of talks with officials following a trip to the US last week by the health secretary, Patricia Hewitt. He said attempts to use rationing mechanisms such as Nice to cut soaring drugs bills would stifle innovation - an argument that is constantly made by the pharmaceutical industry.
You read that right. The government official lobbying for NICE "reform" Is from the Government of the United States, not the government of the UK. The deputy US health secretary is trying to tell the United Kingdom what it's health care policies should be.
Wait. It gets better. The UK spends less and provides better outcomes for it's citizens than the health care system of the United States. Yet we still feel the need to tell them how they should be running things.
Oh, and everyone is covered in the UK. 46.6 million people in the US aren't.
Allowing all new drugs to be used in the NHS would result in the companies "fighting it out" on price, Mr Azar said, which would drive the drug bill down.
Yyyyyyeeeaahhhhh.....because allowing totally open formularies works so well here that most hospitals and insurance companies have decided to allow coverage for every single new drug. I am very glad I will never have to see the words "NDC NOT COVERED" ever again.
Ok, pulling this all together. USA spends more per person on health care than the UK. People in USA are sicker, way sicker, than in the UK. Everyone covered in the UK. USA feels the need to start telling the UK how it should run it's health care system.
Does a lot to dispel the stereotype of the stupid, arrogant American doesn't it?
1 comment:
Nice article, it's good to see that soocial medical care (for want of a better term) does have its proponents in the USA.
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