We are wasting time. In my opinion, if we had invested the savings from methylprednisolone to accelerate spinal cord injury research, we would have had better therapies for chronic spinal cord injury by now. Insurance payers benefit from effective therapies that reduce medical care costs. The U.S. government is the world's largest insurance payer. Because it stands to gain the most from research reducing medical care costs, it should invest the most into such research.
Research also provides critical indirect economic benefits for people with disability.
As some diseases are cured, the medical care budget is freed up for remaining uncured diseases. In other words, the pizza pie is the same size but more people are eating now than ever. If the current situation is allowed to continue, only the very rich will be able to afford expensive therapies and technologies that reduce disability and improve quality of life. Research can effectively reduce the number of people consuming the pie. Thus, even if research does not provide a cure for a particular disability, people with that disability will get a larger share of the pie and would be able to afford assistive technologies that improve quality of life.