{"items": [{"author": "Peter", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/notes/jeff-kaufman/wednesday-august-11-2010-should-we-treat-inexpensive-diseases-first/417487556212/?comment_id=417490331212", "anchor": "fb-417490331212", "service": "fb", "text": "Humans are not logical, Mr. Spock. They only think they are.", "timestamp": "1281537927"}, {"author": "Michael", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/notes/jeff-kaufman/wednesday-august-11-2010-should-we-treat-inexpensive-diseases-first/417487556212/?comment_id=417511361212", "anchor": "fb-417511361212", "service": "fb", "text": "I don't vote in a fact-free vacuum. I know people with illness Y, and I refuse to deny them any chance at treatment.", "timestamp": "1281542910"}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/notes/jeff-kaufman/wednesday-august-11-2010-should-we-treat-inexpensive-diseases-first/417487556212/?comment_id=417512766212", "anchor": "fb-417512766212", "service": "fb", "text": "@Michael: if only 100 people get each disease in a year, only a very small number of voters would have friends with either illness.", "timestamp": "1281543239"}, {"author": "Michael", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/notes/jeff-kaufman/wednesday-august-11-2010-should-we-treat-inexpensive-diseases-first/417487556212/?comment_id=417526426212", "anchor": "fb-417526426212", "service": "fb", "text": "I suspect I'm not the only person able to think through policy implications. I know people with illnesses comparable to illness Y in terms of cost.", "timestamp": "1281546237"}, {"author": "Holly", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/notes/jeff-kaufman/wednesday-august-11-2010-should-we-treat-inexpensive-diseases-first/417487556212/?comment_id=417620141212", "anchor": "fb-417620141212", "service": "fb", "text": "Essentially, some hope is better than none.", "timestamp": "1281567419"}, {"author": "Steven", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/notes/jeff-kaufman/wednesday-august-11-2010-should-we-treat-inexpensive-diseases-first/417487556212/?comment_id=417687536212", "anchor": "fb-417687536212", "service": "fb", "text": "Jeff, if you had illness Y, you'd prefer rule B, but if you had illness X, you'd prefer rule A. Opponents of national health insurance schemes love this type of argument, because this type of flawed argument makes the case against any kind of rationing which nat'l health ins opponents imply will exist in any scheme.
Flawed, because diseases are rarely this clear-cut. For example, disease A may cost only 20K per year to treat but its treatment may go on for many more years than disease B, or the likelihood of cure of A may be less than B, or the costs can suddenly shift as a drug for B goes generic while a generic drug for A comes off the market due to safety concerns, or having disease A even when successfully treated leads to more long term sequelae than B necessitating further treatment, and this may not be known at the time of initial decision making. I could go on and on.
And flawed, because private insurers also ration, but they don't call it that; they call it underwriting :)", "timestamp": "1281583917"}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/notes/jeff-kaufman/wednesday-august-11-2010-should-we-treat-inexpensive-diseases-first/417487556212/?comment_id=417700946212", "anchor": "fb-417700946212", "service": "fb", "text": "@Steve: on rationing, I find the arguments of http://www.nytimes.com/.../19/magazine/19healthcare-t.html pretty reasonable", "timestamp": "1281587961"}, {"author": "Deanna", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/notes/jeff-kaufman/wednesday-august-11-2010-should-we-treat-inexpensive-diseases-first/417487556212/?comment_id=417704641212", "anchor": "fb-417704641212", "service": "fb", "text": "What if you had Z amount of money allocated to preventing some of the leading causes of death that are lifestyle/diet related (heart disease, type II diabetes)?", "timestamp": "1281588998"}, {"author": "Steven", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/notes/jeff-kaufman/wednesday-august-11-2010-should-we-treat-inexpensive-diseases-first/417487556212/?comment_id=417705871212", "anchor": "fb-417705871212", "service": "fb", "text": "A very good article. It is actually not political on a subject that always gets political.", "timestamp": "1281589452"}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/notes/jeff-kaufman/wednesday-august-11-2010-should-we-treat-inexpensive-diseases-first/417487556212/?comment_id=417779596212", "anchor": "fb-417779596212", "service": "fb", "text": "@Deanna: I don't understand your question. Are you asking how I think that Z amount should be spent?", "timestamp": "1281618799"}]}