Our medical and social systems are ill-equipped to deal with cures for widespread diseases, which is what Harvoni and its related drugs are. We are used to pay

Our medical and social systems are ill-equipped to deal with cures for widespread diseases, which is what Harvoni and its related drugs are. We are used to paying for disease on time: relatively small amounts of money for periodic treatments that might last a lifetime, however long that lifetime may be. And we (at least in the US) often think more about the value of the treatment to the patient rather than the value of a healthy person to society. These questions of cost and value go far beyond HCV. It is a popular, medical, and entrepreneurial dream to cure cancer wholesale with a single easy course of treatment. While cancer isn't a single disease, perhaps we should begin asking now how we could assess the value and pay the price for such a "miracle" should a cure for any of the most common cancers be developed.