Health Affairs

Health Affairs, 28, no. 5 (2009): 1466-1474 doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.28.5.1466 © 2009 by Project HOPE	New Online   Getting Health Reform Done   After the State of the Union   Incremental Reform   E-Health in Developing World   Most-Read Articles in 2009

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Looking Ahead

Is It Time To Reexamine The Patent System’s Role In Spending Growth?

Mark V. Pauly

Containing health care spending growth will require changing the amount and form of new health care technology. But even if new technology lowers real resource costs by reducing the use of medical care (as through personalized medicine or by producing cost offsets), it might not lower the rate of growth of spending when patents are present: higher net value may translate into a higher price for patented products. To lower long-run spending growth, it may be necessary to change patent policy by reducing the term of patent life or linking spending growth targets to net benefits from patented products.

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