Year: 2013
Type: article
Abstract: Cost is an ethical issue in three ways: price, value, and burden.In the United States, the high prices of potentially life-sustaining treatments and technologies that are set by manufacturers are frequently characterized as unsustainable for public and private insurance programs and for patients [1].This problem, well documented in cancer care [2], is due not only to the large number of cancer cases (cancer is the second leading cause of death in the U.S., after heart disease) and the ever-growing number of drugs to treat different types of cancer, but also to highly problematic ways of describing-and marketing-drugs as "breakthroughs," in part to justify extremely high prices.In their important article, Tito Fojo and Christine Grady make a compelling ethical case to their fellow oncology professionals: "We must stop deluding ourselves" that high-priced cancer drugs "are an aberration," and we must change our prescribing practices so that we do not "signal" to manufacturers our tacit acceptance of ever-higher prices as the status quo [3].
Source: The AMA Journal of Ethic
Author: Nancy Berlinger
Institution: Johns Hopkins University
Language: English
Subfield: Economics and Econometrics
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W77966041