NOVEMBER 2019 | MANE LIFE SCIENCES| 11
We don’t know how much any US deal would cost the NHS. But a deal that matched America’s stated objectives could mean the NHS loses £400m each week - and studies suggest that every £100m of lost funding would mean over 500 deaths and more than 2,300 years of life lost, mainly in cancer, respiratory, circulatory and gastrointestinal diseases. That’s without getting into the impact on quality of life in mental health, and neurological and respiratory diseases.
Even just removing the rebates would be likely to lead to 3,000 to 4,400 unnecessary deaths, and the loss of 14,000 to 20,000 years of life and 47,000 to 67,000 quality-adjusted life years (a measure of impact on length and quality of life) every year.