[nradov]

One approach would be to place an upper limit on the price of each drug or medical procedure based on the expected gain in Quality Adjusted Life Years (QALY) for an average patient. Although it's uncomfortable to discuss, we already place a dollar value on human life in civil wrongful death lawsuits. So we know roughly what an extra year of life is worth. And that value can be adjusted based on whether the patient is able to live a normal life or will still be bedridden (or other limitations) even with the treatment.

[darawk]

Ya, but the effect of that will be to diminish investment in treatments. If you can charge a million dollars per pill for a cancer cure, then you'd be willing to invest an enormous sum to find that cure. If your price is capped at $1000/pill, you will be willing to invest considerably less.

This isn't out of any malice or malfeasance, i'd like to add. This is just a rational calculation. A real person at the top somewhere is investing their own money in this, in the hopes that they'll be able to recover that in the marketplace, and presumably make a profit.