Cost Benefit Analysis and US Health Care Research Paper

Cost Benefit Analysis and US Health Care - Research Paper Example This paper will describe how Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) and Cost Effectiveness Analysis (CEA) can assist the US healthcare to address the issue of rising costs. ‘Cost-Effectiveness Analysis’ and U.S. Health Care is an article written by Uwe E. Reinhardt and published in the Today’s Economist blog. In the first part of the article, Reinhardt particularly says about the current significance of ‘comparative effectiveness analysis’ in the US healthcare. The author suggests that clinical practice guidelines promulgated by medical specialty societies must be based on a well structured comparative effectiveness analysis so as to deliver better outcomes to patients as well as the Federal government. He also recommends the introduction of a ‘comparative cost-effectiveness analysis’ with intent to establish least-cost therapeutic strategies capable of achieving a given therapeutic goal. Reinhardt clearly tells that two distinct groups oppose cost-effectiveness analysis in the US healthcare. According to the author, the manufacturers of pharmaceutical and biotechnology products or of medical devices often constitute the first group whereas the second group is comprised of â€Å"individuals who sincerely believe that health and life are priceless† (Reinhardt, 2009). In the article, Reinhardt mainly describes two interconnected approaches, such as comparative effectiveness analysis and comparative cost-effectiveness analysis to improve the overall health benefits delivered to patients and to trim down the cost of health products and services. Comparative effectiveness analysis is a better tool to compare and evaluate two potential choices and to identify the most feasible one. Under this method, positive and negative consequences of different choices under consideration are scrutinized, and finally the most effective choice is identified. The major strength of the comparative effectiveness analysis is that it