In a previous post in 2014, I examined a systematic literature review of individual willingness to pay for an extra life year. That study found that individuals were willing to pay 118,839 EUR 2010 on average (equivalent to $142,762.92 USD in 2015 USD). The median WTP however, is only 24,226 EUR (or $29,100 in 2015 USD).
Another study from Braithwaite et al. (2008) not included in that review uses a unique approach to measure QALY valuations:
We used 2 separate approaches to investigate whether the $50,000 per QALY rule is consistent with current resource allocation decisions. To infer a lower bound for the decision rule, we estimated the incremental cost-effectiveness of recent (2003) versus pre-“modern era” (1950) medical care in the United States. To infer an upper bound for the decision rule, we estimated the incremental cost-effectiveness of unsubsidized health insurance versus self-pay for nonelderly adults (ages 21– 64) without health insurance.
They find that:
…plausible lower and upper bounds for a cost-effectiveness decision rule are $183,000 per life-year and $264,000 per life-year, respectively. Our sensitivity analyses widen the plausible range (between $95,000 per life-year saved and $264,000 per life-year saved when we considered only health care’s impact on quantity of life, and between $109,000 per QALY saved and $297,000 per QALY saved when we considered health care’s impact on quality as well as quantity of life) but it remained substantially higher than $50,000 per QALY.
These findings are similar or even a bit higher than the average values of the systematic literature review. As many countries use a value per QALY to measure the value of new innovations, ensuring that this figure is supported by solid evidence is vital to ensuring that patient access to innovative treatments occurs without overspending on treatments that offer poor value.
Source:
- Braithwaite, R. Scott, et al. “What does the value of modern medicine say about the $50,000 per quality-adjusted life-year decision rule?.” Medical care 46.4 (2008): 349-356.
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