$3,000 a month medicine...

It takes a cold-hearted man to ask whether society should pay $36k/year for the medication of an 82 year-old woman. It takes a soul-less moron to ask that question when it relates to his own grandmother.

My grandmother has been diagnosed with Scleroderma Her medication will cost Medicare about $3k/month

Don't get me wrong here, I want my grandmother (aka Nana) to be around as long as possible. However, as a student of healthcare economics, I can't help but ask the question of the benefit to society in terms of the allocation of resources.

Let's take this away from my grandmother in particular and talk about it in theory.

Before I do that, I should say, that I am not a soul-less, unfeeling moron. What I am is someone who can both feel emotionally and still discuss a situation in the abstract w/o getting emotionally involved. I don't know if this is a strenght or weakness, it's just a fact. I've also noticed that it's not something that many I've met can do. (There are plenty things that others do at which I am not adept myself, so it all balances out).

Now back to the theory.

On the one hand, an 82 year old woman has done a lot for society and we owe it to her to give her a quality of life so that she is "not forgotten in her old age" as Jewish scripture advocates. If we can prolong her life, we should.

On the other hand...at what cost? $3k/month? $10k/month? $1 million/month? At some point, you have to ask if it's worth it. How many more years will she have? What is the trade-off because the money we spend on her isn't going somewhere else?

Should healthcare be measured in society utility?