Response to 'An Unhealthy Burden'

The Economist recently published 'An Unhealthy Burden' that describes the absence of a free-market system in American health care. I submitted a Letter to the Editor in response to that article (see below). Also, I will be posting the results of my analysis in the next few weeks.

SIR – You use Christopher Conover's study to support the argument of over-regulation in American health care. Although the American system is in desperate need of revision, Conover's claim that FDA regulation costs the American people $49 billion annually is overstated. Conover bases his claim on a study that estimates drug-related mortality benefits accumulated in the 1950s and 1960s. Drug development has changed considerably in the past half century--the majority of today’s New Drug Applications are "me-too" drugs that have negligible mortality benefit. Additionally, Conover values lives lost from approval delays at $4.4 million apiece, a number applicable only if approved drugs cured patients. Instead, today’s therapeutics incrementally extend patients' lives and thus the cost of delays should be calculated using lost patient life years. Nevertheless, your central thesis is correct: Americans have much to gain from greater free market competition in the health care system.

ABHAS GUPTA
New York, NY