#QALY
nothing is funnier than watching normal humans encounter shrimp qaly-thought
September 17, 2026 at 3:58 PM
(Probably more but I just valued QALY loss from icu death at $30,000 per, which is very conservative)
November 22, 2024 at 2:11 PM
The difference between this and right wing agitprop is that we know as a result of extensive study that GLP-1s are a public health intervention only slightly less effective than indoor plumbing or antibiotics. Opposing them from a strict QALY perspective is worse than being a RFK style anti-vaxxer.
February 17, 2026 at 8:55 PM
"We don't have to vaccinate because we have universal healthcare" really is a bizarre cope from Europeans because vaccinating people against disease is almost always much cheaper than treating it, even before considering QALY/$ calculations enter the picture.
I don't think it's true (or helpful) to say that Denmark recommends fewer vaccines because their healthcare system can treat the diseases better.

The trend is for countries to move to universal recommendations over time. Some countries do it much earlier than others.
Here it is compared across countries instead, with rotavirus as an example:

Denmark is one of very few western countries that doesn't recommend rotavirus vaccines universally (yet?)
January 6, 2026 at 8:10 PM
What a QALY
September 3, 2024 at 10:34 PM
At $1,300 per QALY (in econ-speak), bike lakes are an incredibly cheap investment in public health, much cheaper than many direct medical interventions. For example, New York's Medicaid program costs $67,000 per QALY, and dialysis is $129,000 per QALY.
“Every $1,300 New York invested in building bike-lanes in 2015 provided benefits equivalent to 1 additional year of life at full health over the lifetime of all city residents, according to a new economic assessment.”

Bike-lanes are a sound public health investment.
www.reuters.com/article/busi...
December 19, 2024 at 1:06 AM
Like, from a statistical perspective, being a shuttle astronaut was ridiculously dangerous (one catastrophic failure per ~62 launches; 1/3 of the fleet destroyed), but 341/355 people only experienced relatively minor reductions in QALY, and many of those survivors flew multiple missions.
September 27, 2026 at 3:29 PM
The predictable response is happening as a result of this story, so I will once again repeat my contention that anyone who advocates for the "Medicare for all" form of single-payor healthcare reform must be able to define "QALY" and specify how Medicare uses it to determine what care is covered
npr.org NPR @npr.org · Jul 22
About 24% of U.S. employees stay in unwanted jobs just for health insurance, a report out Wednesday finds. Up significantly since 2021, the uptick in "job lock" is a concerning sign for the U.S. economy. n.pr/4gQIY5E
Staying in a job for the health insurance? About 1 in 4 Americans do, a survey says
About 24% of U.S. employees stay in unwanted jobs just for health insurance, a report out Wednesday finds. Up significantly since 2021, the uptick in "job lock" is a concerning sign for the U.S. economy.
n.pr
July 23, 2026 at 5:40 AM
"Economics"

"Among individuals aged 5 years to 64 years, ICERs ranged from $284,068 CAD per QALY to $457,892 CAD per QALY for one annual dose and greater than $1,000,000 CAD per QALY gained for two doses per year."

Can someone familiar with health economics comment on this?
Guidance on the use of COVID-19 vaccines for 2025 to summer 2026 - Canada.ca
Valid as of January 10, 2025: The National Advisory Committee on Immunization's guidance on the use of COVID-19 vaccines for 2025 to summer 2026.
www.canada.ca
June 26, 2025 at 5:24 PM
Weird how people pronounce QALY and DALY differently
February 25, 2025 at 2:00 PM
The whole QALY idea comes from the NHS!
December 24, 2024 at 7:05 PM
Especially when you compare it to the baseline of other medications and therapeutics. As if any treatment lacks side effects or efficacy.

Fortunately we have a standard measure for these decisions- QALY, and every GAC procedure (inc bottom surgery) has a positive QALY over threshold today.
July 22, 2025 at 3:41 PM
What's QALY?
July 23, 2026 at 5:42 AM
PHARMAC does not have a cost/QALY threshold as there are other considerations in their policy - but - $40K per QALY is usually funded, $300K per QALY usually not. International HTA commonly recognised around ‘per capita GDP per QALY as reasonable. This is ~$USD50K , approx $NZ85K.

This is bad. 🤬
November 26, 2023 at 3:53 AM
"The quality-adjusted life year (QALY) is a generic measure of disease burden, including both the quality and the quantity of life lived. It is used in economic evaluation to assess the value of medical interventions."
July 23, 2026 at 5:45 AM
Krasse Studienergebnisse:
Fahrradinfrastruktur zahlt sich in Lebenserwartung (QALY) aus - und zwar für alle. Großartige Public Health Measures für kleines Geld!
Let's go for it!
doi.org/10.1136/inju...
June 3, 2026 at 8:33 AM
Margaret QALY
Dennis QALY
Demi QALY

THE QALY (A Substância Margarina QALY)
September 22, 2024 at 2:30 PM
My rule is "anyone who supports M4A must be able to define QALY and define how Medicare uses it to decide what treatments to approve"
July 22, 2026 at 11:36 AM
Ooh, fun health economics geek stuff.
The QALY is also cool and a bit more nuanced.
Takes into account how well a life is lived, not just how long

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality...
Quality-adjusted life year - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
March 13, 2026 at 8:53 AM
Later, Ne'eman (the author) gets into QALY analysis from both Singer and healthcare rationing systems as a way of showing the eugenics in EA: "By what right should the government fund wheelchairs when these funds might be more efficiently spent on paralysis prevention or cure research? ..."
August 23, 2026 at 3:33 PM
See now this seems like something that should be added to the ICER per QALY calculations for the Covid vaccines. In fact the results of almost every study done showing the benefits or harms from a Covid infection should be incorporated.
January 30, 2026 at 11:56 PM
, with 290,000 clinical cases, 3008 deaths, and loss of 29,038 QALY averted from June to December 2020, representing $CDN 610 million in economic wealth.
February 12, 2024 at 3:08 PM
See? I worked in a doctor's office for 5 years, medical claims for 2, and never came across QALY
Very helpful, thanks!
July 23, 2026 at 5:48 AM
I'm still not convinced that losing the European Medicines Agency at Brexit was itself a major reason for the travails of the life sciences sector, but it can't have helped. NICE's failure to revalue a QALY for 25 years and inflexible drug price negotiations are significant.

#r4today
September 13, 2025 at 6:26 AM