Question

In: Economics

A patient with an incurable, end-of-life condition would assign a QALY score of 0.66 to any...

  1. A patient with an incurable, end-of-life condition would assign a QALY score of 0.66 to any given year spent living in his present state of health. If we assume that the patient is estimated to have three (3) years of life remaining, which among the following statements is true?

Group of answer choices

a. It is obviously not cost-effective to spend any money on end-of-life care for this patient.

b. The patient considers a year of perfect health to be worth the same as 6.6 years of living with his illness.

c. The patient would be willing to sacrifice one of those three remaining years if he could instead live for two years in a state of perfect health.

d. It is not mathematically possible to use QALY scores to answer this type of question.

Solutions

Expert Solution

( c )

The patient would be willing to sacrifice one of those three remaining years if he could instead live for two years in a state of perfect health.

Quality adjusted life years ( QALY ) represents the number of years a person is expected to live after adjusting for the quality of life. The quality of life is adjusted using the QALY score.  QALY score varies between 0 and 1. A perfectly healthy person will have a QALY score of 1.

Number of years remaining for the patient currently = 3

QALY score = 0.66

Utlity for the patient in his remaining life (QALY) = Number of years x QALY score = 3 x 0.66

Utlity for the patient in his remaining life (QALY) = 2

Now consider the situation of the patient if he were to be in perfect health but live only for two years

QALY score for a person in perfect health = 1

Utlity for the patient in his remaining life (QALY) = Number of years x QALY score = 2 x 1

Utlity for the patient in his remaining life (QALY) = 2

As we can see from the above calculations, the life years remaining after adjusting for its quality of life based on QALY score is same in both cases. Therefore, the patient would be willing to sacrifice one of those three remaining years if he could instead live for two years in a state of perfect health.

Rest of the options are wrong since he still has 2 years of quality life remaining with him and thus spending money on his treatment is needed. 2 years of a perfectly healthy life is equal to 3 years of his current life. We use the QALY scores and mathematically determine the equivalency conditions.


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