Biotechnology Healthcare - September/October 2008 - (Page 18)

HEALTHCARE REFORM How the Candidates’ Positions Indirectly Affect Four healthcare experts handicap the reform proposals James C. Greenwood Arthur “Abbie” Leibowitz, MD As healthcare reform issues go, biotechnology is at a level too granular for a presidential campaign. But the expected widespread use of biologics in the nottoo-distant future may force the government to address fundamental cost issues in American healthcare. Four experts offer their views on what may lie ahead – no matter the outcome of the election. BY LOLA BUTCHER Contributing Editor T PHOTOGRAPHS: Greenwood and Miller, Rob Crandall; Leibowitz, Don Tracy; Vogenberg, Webb Chappell he healthcare reform proposals offered by Sen. John McCain, the Republican nominee for president, and Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee, never mention biologics. But biotechnology could serve as the poster child for the challenges one of them will face when presidential attention is turned to America’s healthcare system. Because of their cost, biologics contribute to a healthcare cost trajectory that most observers consider unsustainable. For many patients, biologics improve the quality of their care, leading to the inevitable question of how much that improvement is worth. Many more people, in essence, have no access to biologic treatment options because of high cost-sharing requirements. Some 46 million more Americans have no insurance, and, thus, have limited access to medical treatments, biologic or otherwise. Will the next administration sort this all out? How? BIOTECHNOLOGY HEALTHCARE asked four thought leaders to share their perspectives. What does “healthcare reform” mean? F. Randy Vogenberg, RPh, PhD: An ideological split around three components of the healthcare system — cost, quality, and access — is becoming increasingly evident. If you talk to Democrats, the issue is all about having access to healthcare. That’s how the party views universal healthcare. This is similar to the perspective Massachusetts had. The state did a nice job of creating a program, based on that state’s demographics, that can im- 18 BIOTECHNOLOGY HEALTHCARE · SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Biotechnology Healthcare - September/October 2008

Biotechnology Healthcare - September/October 2008 Openers Editorial/David B. Nash, MD, MBA Contents At a Glance: Multiple Sclerosis Drug Track Personalized Medicine Healthcare Reform’s Effects on Biologic Access Breast Cancer Status Testing: A Crapshoot With Deadly Odds Trends, Issues, and Perspectives In the Management of MS So High-Tech, Yet So Simple The Evolution of Ascertaining the Value Proposition Specialty Pharmacy Employer to Employer Health Plan Confidential Trends

Biotechnology Healthcare - September/October 2008

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