The Vital Medical Research Obama Isn’t Pushing

Jan. 28 (Bloomberg) -- The growth in Medicare costscontinues to be slow, in what is perhaps the most encouragingfiscal development for the U.S. in decades. If the health-caresystem is to continue to provide better value for Americans,policy makers need to seize this moment. Sadly, they are insteadlargely sitting on the sidelines.

The sluggish activity at the Patient-Centered OutcomesResearch Institute provides a vivid illustration. It is simplynot possible to make health care more efficient without knowinghow treatments stack up against one another. So-calledcomparative effectiveness research is needed to find out, forexample, whether spinal fusion surgery works better than thealternatives in relieving back pain, or whether proton beamtherapy is worth the extra cost to treat prostate cancer.