The conclusion of the study is that health care you are unwilling to pay for out of pocket doesn't help more than it harms (on average).
A specific example of care people don't need but will get: mammograms. They are pointless (benefits don't outweigh harms) for people under 50. I mentioned this to a few women I know, but all said they intend to continue getting them.
[wow, down to -1 in 20 minutes from citing an expert opinion and an experiment. I should go back to reddit.]
Any time you want to talk about cancer, you have to acknowledge the fact that it's actually over a hundred diseases. Cancer treatment is phenomenally effective for some cancers, for some classes of patients, and ineffective for others.
I can name eight people, off the top of my head, I've known who've had cancer. (I'm sure I could list more.) Three died, four are alive and well, and one was diagnosed last month. We're talking about a disease that would have killed all 8 a few decades ago.
Also, even if the improvements in cancer treatment are only interative (8 months instead of 3) that's still a major gain, from a research perspective. Look at HIV/AIDS; in 1985, it was an incurable and fatal disease. Due to a series iterative improvements, someone who contracts HIV today in the developed world will very likely be alive in 15 years, and by then, there may be a cure.
You guys can have a big long emotional conversation about cancer care, but cancer isn't where all the cost is in the system, and cancer treatment may not even be where all the cost is in cancer care (tests, many of which have been demonstrated to be ineffective, may be the major component instead).
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11...
Incidentally, last time we did a study to measure it, we found that at least 30% of health care consumed by patients is unnecessary.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAND_Health_Insurance_Experimen...
The conclusion of the study is that health care you are unwilling to pay for out of pocket doesn't help more than it harms (on average).
A specific example of care people don't need but will get: mammograms. They are pointless (benefits don't outweigh harms) for people under 50. I mentioned this to a few women I know, but all said they intend to continue getting them.
[wow, down to -1 in 20 minutes from citing an expert opinion and an experiment. I should go back to reddit.]