[stevekemp]

Does the cost matter? Many countries subsidize healthcare, so there's either no charge or a token payment which doesn't even pretend to cover the cost of treatment.

Other countries use insurance, so once again the end cost is essentially irrelevant.

[Groxx]

Yes? Countries that subsidize healthcare don't calculate infinite value per person.

[skeletal88]

The cost absolutely matters. If something costs tens of thousands of € per month for a long time then it will either not be approved or will be used very rarely. The cost is not irrelevant because the insurance does not have infinite money. They need to decide which cures, medicines, operations they fund. They can spend 1000€ to cure 100 people of something or to spend 100k to maybe cure someone with an experimental treatment.

This is one of the issues with the modern cancer cures, thst they are very specific to the cancer, the patient, need one off lab work for each patient and this makes them very expensive and not affordable to many. Despite having public healthcare the managers of it still need to decide what to spend their limited funds on.

[majormajor]

The treatment cost for the newest hep C drugs have dropped dramatically since they were introduced. Started around $100,000 for a course. So six-figure price tags don't keep "cure"-level drugs from getting approved or introduced. The cost of the existing not-a-cure treatments also added up fast, after all; as they do for many cancers.

You're right about the specificity - Hep C is a bigger-population target than a lot of cancers are - but a lot of the new approaches are looking to be inherently more "personalized" to compensate.

[esafak]

Of course it does. Countries have budgets. Expensive drugs aren't doled out like candy; they require screening, waits, connections, and even bribes.

[nickjj]

> Other countries use insurance, so once again the end cost is essentially irrelevant.

I think it matters because oftentimes insurance companies won't cover treatments if a cheaper form of treatment exists. It doesn't matter if the old treatment is less effective or a much worse outcome for a patient. This is especially true for "new" treatments.

[inglor_cz]

Cost is always relevant, given that the amount of money in any healthcare system is limited and someone must decide whether to pay for patient A or patient B.