[renewiltord]

Well, that's because Americans have an aversion to QALYs. It might be related to the idea that the country is fundamentally Christian in a deep way.

A common accusation of anyone attempting to do a QALY based system would be that they are "sacrificing grandma for the dollar".

The recent COVID crisis is an example where QALY based evaluations (which may well have gone either way) were summarily considered "putting a number on the value of a life".

In that respect, it's not that the institutions are perverted but that the society they are in prefers them this way.

[benlivengood]

> The recent COVID crisis is an example where QALY based evaluations (which may well have gone either way) were summarily considered "putting a number on the value of a life".

I think a clarification is that a lot of U.S. citizens agree with putting a number on the value of a life but they value lives by the amount of wealth a particular life owns. What they actually don't like is the perception of having to pay their own money for other lives that they don't particularly value while simultaneously discounting their own risk of catastrophic medical costs. Irrational self-dis-interest, to coin a term.

[renewiltord]

You know, I'd agree, except that the criticisms were directed at people who claimed that there may be some balance of kick-starting the economy (saving some number of QALYs) and allowing some number of people to die (losing other QALYs).

[someguydave]

are you saying Christians are against quality life?