Uveal Blues: Funding for impotence drugs riles lawmakers - The Washington Times: Nation/Politics

Tuesday, May 17, 2005

Funding for impotence drugs riles lawmakers - The Washington Times: Nation/Politics - May 17, 2005: "The federal government will spend nearly $2 billion in the next decade on male impotence drugs under its Medicare program, according to a new cost estimate from the Congressional Budget Office that is fueling some lawmakers' efforts to end that spending. "

Anonymous said...: And so it begins....

You cannot expect those that hold the pursestrings to just pay for everything. That is not in their nature.

I think some of our patients should be given the choice:

A years worth of Macugen: $10,000
A years worth of Viagra: $300

I'm assuming the poor bastard is lucky to get it once a week. Now to do the Gary Brown type of cost/benefit analysis you have to plug in the efficacy and expected outcomes of the variables. I'm going to assume that the patient goes blind despite the Macugen. Well, maybe he's a little less blind, but from a practical standpoint, he can perform visually no better than he could have without the treatment. However, the VIagra worked and he's quite happy about that. In fact, his wife is also so you have to take that into the analysis too.

Now realize that you could have made 33 couples happy for the cost of one still blind patient on the Macugen.

Fascinating, isnt it?; 11:10 PM

Uveal Blues