Martians, ministers and medicines funding: the budget impact problem
I can still remember that fateful day some years ago when I was sitting with a minister for health in their office and being told the government had decided not to list several new medicines on the government’s reimbursement formulary. This was even though the medicines concerned had all been recommended for listing by the government’s own independent, expert evaluation committee. The reason? The government just couldn’t afford it. Or, rather, the government had decided to sp