Unless you’ve been living under a rock, or in the penthouse of a skyscraper, you’ve probably heard of the Occupy movement and its catchphrases about the “99 percent” and their arch-nemesis, the “1 percent.” The movement’s primary frustration came from the financial industry, though it has since spread to other sectors, including the pharmaceutical and medical device industries due to the issue of access.
TED just released a talk entitled “Medicine for the 99 percent” in which Thomas Pogge describes an economic proposal called the Health Impact Fund (HIF) that aims to incentivize the development and delivery of new medicines by paying for performance. Though it still needs government buy-in, the HIF may conceivably be applied to medical gadgets – from pacemakers to wheelchairs – that improve the length or quality of life though are currently too expensive to be accessible to “99 percent.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTMqGbTNkNg