Healthcare refomer, heal thyself
White House Budget Director Peter Orszag would like to know what treatments work for him — a middle-aged white male who exercises. And he thinks healthcare reform efforts should focus in part on getting that kind of information to everyone.
Experts on healthcare, lobbyists and politicians started a final crunch on Tuesday to try and put together a healthcare reform package that will lower costs, help more Americans get insurance, and improve the less-than-optimal care that most patients now get.
Orszag assured Congress that the White House was leaving the details to lawmakers — but dropped hints about what he would like to see. One example — a new agency or framework for comparing medical treatments, including drugs, head-to-head.
“For me as patient, I would like my doctor to have better information about what might help a middle-aged, marathon-running male than he currently has,” Orszag told a Senate Finance Committe hearing.
“I mean, a great example is prostate cancer. And there are hugely different treatments. And we don’t know which ones work better,” he added.
Drug makers sponsor most drug trials and they usually compare their new drugs to placebos, not to existing drugs.
Orszag bets that private insurers and Medicare would drop some new and expensive drugs if they could not be shown to work better than older, cheaper treatments.
REUTERS/Yuri Gripas (OMB Director Peter Orszag prepares to testify)
