Hemophilia is a rare disease, but pricing for factor VIII is symptomatic of a nearly ubiquitous problem: we—and our employers and insurers—are shopping for healthcare in a market where everything is monetized to the maximum, without much regard for the implications for patient health. No wonder that by 2016, even some of the country’s most admired, judicious health plans, like that offered by Pennsylvania’s Geisinger Health System, were asking for some rate increases of 40 percent.
