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Not all diseases are bad enough to justify enormous pricetags for a cure.

I am not aware of any diseases where the US government would not pay for a cure if there is a known cure for it because the price to “how bad is the disease” ratio is too high.

What do you mean? The US government doesn't buy cures.

It's called an orphan drug--when it's too expensive to make a profit on it, the FDA (IIRC) steps in and subsidizes it.

I actually meant that Medicare/Medicaid/Tricare (aka US government) do not specifically reject treatment because of price. ACA also requires managed care organizations (aka health insurance companies) to cover pretty much all proven treatments.

As an example, the new Hep C medications are $80k+ per dose or something if I recall correctly, and Medicaid pays for it.

This is certainly true, but it describes why companies don't start or continue the research. This has nothing to do with killing off a clinical stage drug because it was "too successful".

The latter, as reported by GP, doesn't seem very plausible.

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