Why Do Doctors Spend $2,000 when They Could Spend $50?

An effective eye drug is available for $50. But many doctors choose a $2,000 alternative. "Avastin costs about $50 per injection. Lucentis costs about $2,000 per injection. Doctors choose the more expensive drug more than half a million times every year, a choice that costs the Medicare program, the largest single customer, an extra $1 billion or more annually. Spending that much may make little sense for a country burdened by ever- rising health bills, but as is often the case in American health care, there is a certain economic logic: Doctors and drugmakers profit when more-costly treatments are adopted." Peter Whoriskey and Dan Keating in The Washington Post