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/lp/american-medical-association/what-is-the-price-of-life-and-why-doesn-t-it-increase-at-the-rate-of-jw5y9wgZXc
- Publisher
- American Medical Association
- Copyright
- Copyright 2003 American Medical Association. All Rights Reserved. Applicable FARS/DFARS Restrictions Apply to Government Use.
- ISSN
- 2168-6106
- eISSN
- 2168-6114
- DOI
- 10.1001/archinte.163.14.1637
- pmid
- 12885677
- Publisher site
- See Article on Publisher Site
Abstract
COMMENTARY What Is the Price of Life and Why Doesn’t It Increase at the Rate of Inflation? N ARTICLE in the require $100000 or more are con- they are skeptical, given that the February 2000 is- sidered unaffordable. (A QALY is a $50 000 to $100 000 per QALY sue of JAMA con- measure that allows comparisons be- threshold has persisted for 2 de- cluded that annual tween health care interventions that cades without adjustment? After all, A retinal screening for save lives and those that improve if society was willing to spend many individuals with type 2 dia- quality of life. For example, an in- $50000 for a QALY 20 years ago, betes mellitus may not be war- tervention that cures a patient of a shouldn’t it be willing to spend more ranted on grounds of cost-effective- health condition with a quality of life for one now? ness. Vijan et al reported that, halfway between perfect health and In this article, we discuss one compared with biannual screen- death yields 0.5 QALYs per year, factor that may contribute to phy- ing, annual retinopathy screening for whereas an intervention that saves sicians’ skepticism about using cost- low-risk patients with
Journal
JAMA Internal Medicine – American Medical Association
Published: Jul 28, 2003