Exclusive: U.S. to roll back 'lost pleasure' approach on health rules

By Sharon Begley and Toni Clarke NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government is preparing to roll back a widely criticized approach to public health, in which the "lost pleasure" people might suffer if they quit smoking or chose to eat healthier foods was used to reduce the projected benefits of new regulations, government officials told Reuters. A broad array of public health advocates, lawmakers, and economists criticized the agency's use of the analysis, however, saying it was applied incorrectly and sharply undercut the projected benefits of regulations meant to improve public health. Officials at the FDA and its parent agency, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), have now intervened to curtail such analysis, according to officials involved. HHS Assistant Secretary Richard Frank, a healthcare economist on leave from Harvard Medical School, asked leading researchers to offer "ideas for new ways of analyzing lost consumer surplus in these cases," according to a letter last month to members of Congress, which was reviewed by Reuters.

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