IPF on Forbes: Another Story About the High Cost of Healthcare?

Over on Forbes.com I write about the recent New York Times article that “exposed” the high cost of healthcare in the United States by using colonoscopies as an example.

My first thought after reading the story was, I wonder how effective colonoscopies are? If the procedure is such a scam, then my expectation would be that that cancer incidence and mortality rates would be on par with other developed nations where less expensive screening procedures are more common. Instead I found that the U.S. has among the lowest rates and more importantly, our rates are dropping, whereas in the other parts of the world colorectal cancer is on the increase.

Let’s give the reporter the benefit of the doubt and assume neither she nor her editors asked themselves the same question I did and therefore never checked this statistic, because if they had, it would have certainly muddied the point of the article and made it far less powerful.

Does healthcare in the United States cost too much? Yes. Do colonoscopies cost too much? Some probably do. But are colonoscopies as they are frequently done here in the United States, as a surgical outpatient procedure, a scam? Based on the price, one might draw that conclusion. But based on the results, especially when one considers cancer incidence and mortality rates, absolutely not.

When cost rubs against effectiveness, the overarching issue does become more complicated. Perhaps having the best colorectal cancer screening procedures in the world is too expensive and unsustainable. And if so, who is going to make those decisions about what gets funded and how much? Those are exactly the sort of questions the New York Times should be asking … nay, the New York Times has an obligation to ask.