Thanks Outrageously Expensive American Medical System

My mother has officially outlived the best-case life expectancy given her when she was diagnosed with brain cancer 18 months ago.  This article by Glenn Reynolds reminded me of the amazing feats of technology that made it possible:

• Dinky hospital in Libby, MT (county population 20,000) has MRI machine and uses it to diagnose brain tumor.
• Patient is in danger of slipping into a coma, so hospital calls A.L.E.R.T Air Ambulance to transport patient to...
• Kalispell Regional Medical Center (county population 90,000) where a neurosurgeon begins removing the tumor 6 hours after patient presented in the emergency room back in Libby.
• Radiation in a regional hospital in the middle of Missouri.
• Temodar, chemo drug introduced in the U.S. 9 years earlier specifically for brain tumors
• MRI's every 6 weeks for a year, every 8 weeks from now to eternity to check for regrowth of this very aggressive tumor

And a hundred other gizmos, tests, procedures and drugs to keep alive a person who just had their brain sliced open. Astounding.

From Glenn's article:

The key point, though, is that these treatments didn't just come out out of the blue. They were developed by drug companies and device makers who thought they had a good market for things that would make people feel better.

But under a national healthcare plan, the "market" will consist of whatever the bureaucrats are willing to buy. That means treatment for politically stylish diseases will get some money, but otherwise the main concern will be cost-control. More treatments, to bureaucrats, mean more costs.

And we'll never know what we're missing.  Ten years ago, they didn't know a 67 year old patient with a Grade III Anaplastic Astrocytoma could live 18 months (and counting).