Don Brunell

The good news is we are developing new life-saving medications every day. The bad news is they are very expensive and paying for them could bankrupt our health care system.

For example, Avastin, which is prescribed to treat a number of cancers, costs $100,000 a year per patient.

Soliris, used to treat a rare blood and kidney disorder, costs almost $410,000 per year.

The latest medication drawing attention is Sovaldi.

While highly effective in curing patients with chronic hepatitis C, it costs about $1,000 a pill or about $84,000 for a standard 12-week treatment.

Chronic hepatitis C affects 3.2...