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Meds To Cut

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This is a blog on why we believe and do what we do, why we pretend otherwise, how we might do better, and what our descendants might do, if they don't all die.
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Meds To Cut

Robin Hanson
Jul 31, 2009
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Meds To Cut

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The most respected standard source on the effectiveness of medical treatments is the British Medical Journal‘s Clinical Evidence.  This summarizes 2500 treatments studied:


(Here is a summary of older reviews. Hat tip to Harold Lehmann.)

I’ve said we should cut medicine in half, and have so far proposed two methods:

  • Raise the price of medicine, first by reducing subsidizes then by increasing patient cost-sharing or by adding taxes.

  • Bring in docs from places where spending is low to impose their style of practice on places where spending is high.

Let me add a third proposal:

  • Cut insurance coverage for treatments using BMJ ratings: first cut those likely to harm and unlikely to benefit, then cut those with benefit harm tradeoffs and those of unknown effectiveness.

Since randomized experiments and cross regional regressions usually find zero correlation between health and medical spending, we should presume that treatments of unknown effectiveness are on average ineffective.

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Meds To Cut

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JC
May 15

Can we start by no longer paying for low back surgery unless conservative care and rehab has not been beneficial first? And conservative care does not mean pain killers and muscle relaxers

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Overcoming Bias Commenter
May 15

oh i totally agree with jessie riedel, she sounds like a real smart girl!

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