FOOLING THE RUBES

Jonah Goldberg deals what he thinks is a fatal blow to health care reform by noting that MedPac "will determine which health-care treatments, procedures, and remedies are cost-effective and which are not." What Jonah won't tell the rubes is that cost-effectiveness was introduced in the 60s and became standard practice in the 70s.

Primer on Cost-Effectiveness Analysis
Effective Clinical Practice, September/October 2000.

Cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) is a technique for selecting among competing wants wherever resources are limited. Developed in the military, CEA was first applied to health care in the mid-1960s and was introduced with enthusiasm to clinicians by Weinstein and Stason in 1977:

"If these approaches were to become widely understood and accepted by the key decision makers in the health-care sector, including the physician, important health benefits or cost savings might be realized."

Regardless of whether this hope was realized, CEA has since become a common feature in medical literature.