Here in UK we have the mis-named NICE system (National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence), issuing guidelines as to which medications can be prescribed and which are either too expensive or deemed unsuitable for various reasons. I appreciate that in the NHS there is limited funding, and very expensive treatments mean other sufferers have to do with less. Also, (understandably) people who are dangerously ill see claims of wonder drugs and new treatments which they demand to be given. These are not always substantiated or fully tested and the NHS has a duty to monitor such 'breakthroughs' with circumspection. I believe there have been some cases pursued by patients where NICE guidelines have been overturned. But the budget won't stretch indefinitely, and one patient's expensive drugs mean another patient's being given short shrift. Very hard, especially for those with life-threatening diseases.