Beware of doomsday scenarios for health care spending
Medical progress can clearly be costly, but doomsday scenarios based on simple extrapolations of today's numbers are out of touch with reality.
Fair pricing activists applauded the news earlier this month that the FDA approved another drug to cure hepatitis C. That this new medicine is cheaper and treats people quicker than the existing hepatitis C drugs goes to show how fast healthy competition can change the outlook on health spending.
Not long ago, health economists were promoting a doomsday scenario that the new crop of hepatitis C drugs would break the bank. To be sure, these drugs were a huge advance, offering cures for hepatitis C rather than holding actions against this potentially disabling and even deadly liver disease. But , and the costs would be felt over short time frame rather than be spread out over
