Britain weighs the cost of prolonging life - International Herald Tribune

[Guest guest]

When Bruce Hardy's kidney cancer spread to his lung, his doctor recommended an expensive new pill from Pfizer. But Hardy is British, and the British health authorities refused to buy the medicine. His wife has been distraught.

"Everybody should be allowed to have as much life as they can," Joy Hardy said in the couple's modest home outside London.

If the Hardys lived in the United States or just about any European country other than Britain, Bruce Hardy would most likely get the drug, although he might have to pay part of the cost. A clinical trial showed that the pill, called Sutent, delays cancer progression for six months at an estimated treatment cost of $54,000.

But at that price, Hardy's life is not worth prolonging, according to a British government agency, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence. The institute, known as NICE, has decided that Britain, except in rare cases, can afford only £15,000, or about $22,750, to save six months of a citizen's life.

Foe entire article:

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/12/03/healthscience/03nice.php

I have heard NICE mentioned as a model in the US for comparative effectiveness. If it does does that mean that insurance carriers will use the use comparative effectivenss to limit payments?

Kathy