"just find it hard to believe you can replace a very cheap product with a likely much higher priced one (Although that is one of the problems with US medicine in general)."
Yes and there is the achilles heel in the equation. I read a report that the average cancer patient will use approximately $275,000 in therapy during the treatment of their disease. Read "average". It doesn't take a lot of imagination to see the system running into real problems. All these very expensive miracle drugs, yet no money to buy them.