Editorial/Article on Health Care Costs (Experimental Breast Cancer Treatment & Health Care Bonus Structures)

The combination of this editorial and article indicates how physicians are under pressures from two different sides with respect to treatment. First, there is an editorial by Jeffrey Kahn about the ability of some patients (in this case, breast cancer patients) to get insurance companies to foot the bill for experimental treatments. On the other hand, the article indicates how certain physician payment structures create incentives to possibly undertreat a patient's illness. Here are some questions you may want to consider in your essay:

1. How sensitive should physicians be to patient demands for new treatments?
2. How should the general lack of knowledge possessed by patients about their conditions and the alternative treatments affect the physician's judgment?
3. How should the relationship between insurance companies and physicians be set up for compensating the physician for his or her treatment?

You may want to consult any of the articles in Part One, Section three (Levinsky, Christensen, Morreim) or Section four (Hall, Applebaum) to discuss these matters. You might also want to examine the editorial on Drug Marketing on this web-site.