New Patent Standards Needed to Stem Costs

March 30, 2010 -- According to a landmark study by The Kaiser Family Foundation, the only long term solution for controlling health care costs in America, is to: "Delay or prevent the implementation of new medical technology."

All of the proposed other methods of controlling costs, are less controversial, but also "ineffective" at controlling costs "long term." Even the holy grail of "preventive medicine" will not save money in the long run if we continue to spend trillions of dollars to keep people alive for the last few weeks or months.

New medical technology and drugs are patented, and therefore command an exhorbitant price, yet often fail to demonstrate significant improvement in length of life, or quality of life, for the added cost, that the government, and the insurance industry must pay for.

The solution is to deny patent protection for any new drugs and medical technology that cannot prove that it will achieve:

-Significant increase in length of life
-Significant increase in quality of life
-Lower costs
-Do no harm

Any new drug or medical technology that can meet these standards would then deserve patent protection. That would be precious few, but they would be game changing technologies, worth the added expense. The rest could face the market competition that already exists, and that would be enough to drive the cost lower very quickly without the monopoly afforded by a patent.

Congress sets the standard for what is and is not, "patentable technology." Currently drugs and medical technology do not have to compete in the open and free marketplace like other new non-medical technologies must. For all of these reasons, and for the sake of controlling costs for the "long term," we should propose these changes be considered by a congressional committee, that sets the standards for the US Patent, Trademark and Copyright Office. A patent is guaranteed by the US constitution, however it is congress that sets the standards.

Dr. Benton is an ENT, head and neck surgeon whose been practicing full time in Corvallis, Oregon for the past 18 years. He also holds two U.S. patents. For his previous articles at The Lund Report click here.