Many other countries that have national health insurance programs, such as the United Kingdom and Australia, perform evidence-based evaluations of new drugs and technology, the position paper said. Much of this information is shared through the Network of Agencies for Health Technology Assessment, of which the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) is a member, the paper said.
Many of these lessons could be applied to reforming the U.S. health care system so that it could cover everyone while still controlling costs, Mr. Doherty said.
Any solution for the United States “will be unique to our political and social culture,” Mr. Doherty said. “Unlike many of the countries studied, [the United States] has a larger and more diverse population with a tradition of individualism and distrust of the government.” Also, free speech—including commercial free speech—is protected by the U.S. Constitution, and there's a deeply rooted system of employer-based coverage, tied to a powerful industry invested in maintaining private insurance and employer-based coverage.
“We're not going to simply take what they've developed [in other countries] and implement it” in the United States, he said. Instead, the goal should be to identify approaches that the evidence shows are more likely to be effective and determine if they can be adapted to the unique circumstances in the United States, he said.