February 9, 2009 9:35PM 

# Medicine Eees No Cheezborger 

By [Michael F. Cannon](https://www.cato.org/people/michael-f-cannon) 

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Colleague and comrade-in-arms Sally Pipes [likens](http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/press/what-if-comparative-effectiveness-were-applied-to-cheeseburgers) federally funded research comparing medical treatments — to which the so-called “stimulus” bill would devote $1.1 billion — to federally funded research comparing cheeseburgers.

I too think the case for federally funded comparative-effectiveness research is misguided, but it’s stronger than the comparison to cheeseburgers would suggest. Why? Cheeseburgers are not [credence goods](https://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa632.pdf).

##### Related Tags 

[General](https://www.cato.org/general), [Health Care](https://www.cato.org/health-care) 

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