Aug 11, 2009
You Can’t Make This Stuff Up, Part One
From an Investor’s Business Daily editorial arguing against the current U.S. health care reform proposals:
The U.K.’s National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence
(NICE) basically figures out who deserves treatment by using a
cost-utility analysis based on the “quality adjusted life year.”
One year in perfect health gets you one point. Deductions are
taken for blindness, for being in a wheelchair and so on. The more
points you have, the more your life is considered worth saving,
and the likelier you are to get care.People such as scientist Stephen Hawking wouldn’t have a chance in
the U.K., where the National Health Service would say the life of
this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is
essentially worthless.
Stephen Hawking was born and has lived his entire life in the U.K.