The way a lot of other countries deal with this is that the government calculates out a benefit vs cost assessment for every new treatment and only covers ones that come out ahead. But, that ends up with things like new targeted chemotherapies being unavailable for years after their initial release, vs in the US where they are available to much of the population once the right prior auth is filed. There is also more top down management of costs, such as long term life support for people in vegetative states.

All of this was branded as "death boards" in the American healthcare debate.