Are the Benefits of Medicine Worth What We Pay for It? 15th Annual Herbert Lourie Memorial Lecture on Health Policy

David M. Cutler ()
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David M. Cutler: John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, https://www.hks.harvard.edu/

No 27, Center for Policy Research Reports from Center for Policy Research, Maxwell School, Syracuse University

Abstract: Is medical care worth it? Conventional wisdom says no, but my answer is emphatically yes. The benefits that we have received from medical advance are enormously greater than the costs. I suggest that public policy far outweighs the importance of cost containment relative to coverage expansion; we could in fact spend more and get a lot more for our health care dollars. In what follows, I talk about the costs and benefits of medical advance, focusing on two areas where I have done the most work: improvements in cardiovascular disease care and care for low birth weight infants. In each case, I present evidence that the benefits justify the costs, and discuss what that implies for public policy. I note at the outside that I shall be summarizing a large volume of research that I and others have done. I have compiled my views into a book, YOUR MONEY OR YOUR LIFE (2004, Oxford University Press), that the interested reader should consult.

JEL-codes: I12 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 29 pages
Date: 2004-04
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