Medicare Should, But Cannot, Consider Cost: Legal Impediments to a Sound Policy

58 Pages Posted: 9 Sep 2005

See all articles by Jacqueline Fox

Jacqueline Fox

University of South Carolina - Joseph F. Rice School of Law

Abstract

Medicare must decide whether to pay for extremely expensive new medical advances. This article shows that Medicare does not have the legal power to consider cost when making these decisions, but does have a conflicting moral obligation to preserve scarce financial resources. Here, the legal, historical and political contexts that have led to this conflict are described and a proposal is made for fixing this by having Congress create independent boards to assess new technologies with an explicit mandate to consider cost.

Keywords: Medicare,ration, cost-benefit, coverage, cost-effective

JEL Classification: H51, K23, I11, K32, I00, K10

Suggested Citation

Fox, Jacqueline, Medicare Should, But Cannot, Consider Cost: Legal Impediments to a Sound Policy. Buffalo Law Review, Vol. 53, Spring 2005, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=786572

Jacqueline Fox (Contact Author)

University of South Carolina - Joseph F. Rice School of Law ( email )

1525 Senate St
Columbia, SC 29208
United States
803-777-8192 (Phone)

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