What’s a year of life worth?
That question is at the heart of a metric called the quality-adjusted life year that is increasingly being used to make decisions about paying for new drugs.
If I was asked that question about one of my children, my answer would be “limitless,” and no one could persuade me otherwise. But others are putting a discrete price tag on it.
Answering how much a quality-adjusted life year (QALY) is worth isn’t a theoretical or philosophical exercise. A number of European health care systems use so-called cost-effectiveness reviews that depend on QALYs to make decisions about which drugs to cover. Since these countries have single-payer systems, these decisions have serious consequences for the patients who might benefit from a new drug. A negative review could literally represent a death sentence.
The QALY methodology places a price tag on the value of living a full year of life in perfect health. Drugs that do not offer a full year of life, or that offer less-than-full quality of life, are rated lower on the QALY scale and may not qualify for reimbursement.
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