Is anyone familiar with H.R. 485? It has been introduced in the House, but it is not yet law.
According to the CRS "This bill prohibits all federal health care programs, including the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, and federally funded state health care programs (e.g., Medicaid) from using prices that are based on quality-adjusted life years (i.e., measures that discount the value of a life based on disability) to determine relevant thresholds for coverage, reimbursements, or incentive programs".
I think the motivation might be to prevent discrimination against people with disabilities, but it seems to me like it goes too far.
It seems to me it would prevent the use of QALYs for making decisions such as is a particular cure for blindness worthwhile, and how might it compare to treatments for other diseases and conditions.
Is anyone familiar with this bill and able to shed more light on it?
I don't know a lot about this bill specifically, but here's my sense:
This bill has been pushed by disability activists, who are opposed to things like QALYs, which they consider ableist. Steve Pearson nicely summarizes why here:
This bill currently has no democratic co-sponsors in the House (although this article says that there is "bipartisan interest"), and I do not think it has been introduced in the Senate. Thus, I suspect this bill is unlikely to get passed under a democratic administration, but I'm not sure about that.
Here is some background:
Tl;dr: I think passing this bill might be akin to shooting holes in the tires of a car that only had two wheels to begin with, and it currently looks unlikely to pass.