In an interview with Ezra Klein, Republican Rep. Paul Ryan describes the alternative to comparative effectiveness research in his budget proposal:

“What I also have in this bill is the health care services commission. It is a system whereby all these stakeholders in health care – providers, doctors, insurers, consumer groups, hospitals, unions – all come up with standard metrics that are standardized that we hold for price and quality and best practices. It’s a lot different than a comparative effectiveness approach.”

I haven’t read the bill, so maybe I’m misunderstanding him here, but it sounds to me like Ryan’s alternative to comparative effectiveness research conducted by some sort of independent agency is to explicitly have the decision made by haggling between impartial interest groups. Feel better now?

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