Donald Berwick appointment as head of the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) coupled with the passage of ObamaCare set off alarms that death panels would be coming soon. Berwick proclamation of love for the British socialized healthcare system stoked these concerns. He also is also quite fond of Britain’s National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE). NICE provides guidance, sets quality standards and manages a national database to improve people’s health and prevent and treat ill health. NICE believes in healthcare rationing. Supporters of ObamaCare scoffed at this notion.
Well maybe the picture is getting a bit clearer. The FDA is considering revoking its approval of the drug Avastin for use on women with advanced breast cancer, leading to accusations that it will mark the start of ‘death panel’ drug rationing. This will delay consideration of the colon-cancer drug Avastin as a treatment for breast cancer. A decision to rescind endorsement of the drug would reignite the highly charged debate over health care reform and how much the state should spend on new and expensive treatments. Breast cancer is the second most common cause of cancer death among US women, with 40,000 last year.
Avastin, the world’s best selling cancer drug, is primarily used to treat colon cancer and was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in 2008 for use on women with breast cancer that has spread. The FDA advisory panel has now voted 12-1 to drop the endorsement for breast cancer treatment. The panel unusually cited “effectiveness” grounds for the decision. But it has been claimed that “cost effectiveness” was the real reason ahead of reforms in which the government will extend health insurance to the poorest. When reviewing drugs for approval the FDA is only charged with looking at their health risks and benefits, not cost effectiveness. It usually follows advisory panel recommendations. A final decision will be announced on Sept 17.
In Berwick’s beloved British system, NICE is eighteen months away from reviewing Avastin for treatment of women. John Reid, Britain’s former health secretary, stated that doctors should not be stopped from prescribing a drug simply because it had not been reviewed by Nice. However, the socialized system does not pay for it. Avastin, which has been shown to extend life by at least 20 months, has passed all its clinical trials and is readily available in other European countries – yet only three British patients have so far been able to get the drug on the NHS.
If the approval of the drug is revoked here then insurers would likely stop paying it when prescribed for women with advanced breast cancer. David Vitter, the Republican Senator for Louisiana, said the FDA decision amounted to rationing health care.
“I shudder at the thought of a government panel assigning a value to a day of a person’s life,” he said. “It is sickening to think that care would be withheld from a patient simply because their life is not deemed valuable enough.
“I fear this is the beginning of a slippery slope leading to more and more rationing under the government takeover of health care that is being forced on the American people.”
The reality of ObamaCare is setting in.
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