Wrestling with the high price of cancer care: should we control costs by individuals' ability to pay or society's willingness to pay?

摘要

"Each chemotherapy treatment cost Dollars 950 and each PET scan was dollar450 and we couldn't afford it," exclaimed Mrs. C. when she was explaining to me why her husband was transferring his care to the Veterans Affairs (VA) medical center. And, the thousands of dollars that they were paying each month were just his copayment, as he has the Medicare managed care plan. As an oncologist working at a VA medical center, Mr. C's story is one that I hear frequently.