Rising Costs of Health Care
Grade 8 Unit B: Cell and Systems
Webquest project for EDSE 452
"... increased utilization the single largest cost driver of drug spending over the past decade. The increased volume was driven largely by use of anti-hypertensive, cholesterol-lowering and gastrointestinal drugs. " Canadian Insititue for Health Information
"To address the costs associated with specialty drugs, employers need to “focus on conditions that have modifiable risk factors” such as diabetes, high cholesterol levels and depression, Sloane said in an interview. Once they educate their employees about managing their personal risk factors through healthier lifestyles, companies will free up resources in their benefits plans for conditions whose risk factors are not modifiable, such as multiple sclerosis and arthritis..." Yaldaz Sadakova
STS CONCERN: There is much controversy about the rising costs of Health Care in Canada as well as worldwide. Some people see prevention as key to stabilize these costs while others believe innovation and medical advancements will eventually mediate the cost. Both opinions can be strongly supported with academic evidence and after you have researched your selected condition you will be asked to state your position on the debate based on the ailment you researched.
" In other sectors of our economy, a slowdown in innovation is a bad thing, because innovation almost always lowers the costs of production. In health care, the opposite is true. It's not because medical developers lack imagination — they are amazingly creative. It's because incentives are currently aligned to reward the development and marketing of highly expensive drugs, biologics, devices, and tests rather than highly effective technologies that could improve health at lower cost." Arthur Kellermann
