Abraham- Yes, it is about profits, and that’s not what health care should be based on. And while we may theoritically have the best care available, said care is often out of reach due to the bottom line of the HMO’s and is reserved for those with enough spare change to pay for it themselves. What is the point of all the medical advances if they can’t help everyone?
Thanks for the comment.

JBG- I think that a positive outlook is more valuable is solving problems than a negative one. Combativeness and belittling solves no problems, but constructive thought can cause changes.

In my latest essay, I do address the problems of access and offer some ideas on how to make availability the norm instead of the exception. And if Canada is losing their doctors to the states simply because of profit, tie their education into service at home and maybe we can do something about returning medicine to care instead of just cash on our side. If your doctors have as much to gain at home as here, I doubt they’d be headed this way. Seems like we all have some work to do. Thanks for the comment.

Dating Help for Men

David- I think the paradigm shifted when the medical miracles we take for granted today revealed an easy path to riches. Slowly, as new doctors replaced retiring doctors, this mentality enshrouded all aspects of medicine and its periphery to bring us to today’s mess.
Thanks for dropping by again.

Ally- Insane, isn’t it, how they will ply the peddlers of their product to increase the peddling? Drugs should be measured for their curative powers and proscribed for specific ailments. Too bad that our culture has placed such a high value on money that the responsibility one should have for the patient is replaced for one’s own self enrichment.
Thanks for the comment.

Kitchen Window Woman- Don’t you just hate it when that happens?
Yes, care is really the central point of medicine, and it’s time we returned to that ideal.
And you mention a great point about the outlandish costs of common items. I can gett 500 cotton swabs in a box for 50 cents. They charge $2? And they say there’s not enough money in health care….Hope to hear from you again.

Windspike- Don’t even get me going on insurance. (I’ll get there soon enough!) There certainly is a hypocrisy in the manufacturers claims that only the drugs they make here and sell here should get to Americans because the other drugs that they make here and sell abroad aren’t really regulated. Does that mean that the rest of the world is getting substandard medicines? If so, we should all stop buying their crap and demand consistent standards, developed and monitored by medical scientists not on any pharmaceutical payroll. Give us all a break!

Ashley- Welcome back! Tuition at public schools for medical degrees have risen 387% since 1960. Don’t tell me that there isn’t enough profit built in there…..
As for the administration concept, computer technology is always getting cheaper and more powerful, If we can spend all the time and money developing realistic looking, sounding, feeling video games, I think we could develop a simple database management system fairly economically. Especially if we put our minds to it.

I would have to agree that the FDA’s inconsistency and red-tape shenanigans do inflate the costs of our health care system, but it alone isn’t responsible for the high costs. Regulations are necessary, especially in medicines, so that more harm than good is not done. However, I am sure that they can be streamlined, more focused, and better managed. Thanks for bringing them up.

I am iffy on the tuition ideas and the administrative ideas. Someone is going to eat it on the tuition idea and I worry that the admin idea is too complicated. I like the malpratice ideas and the advertising ideas.

I am surprised that you didn’t cover the FDA, though. I am sure that is the root cause of our drugs being so much more expensive.

Another fine and thoughtful post. Capitalism works in strange and mysterious ways. Also, when you involve the insurance companies, the cost of things escalate.

It does seem to me that medical costs have unduly become extravagent to subsidize the lifestyles of the rich and famous. Makes me wonder why education/teaching hasn’t been able to capitalize on the same kind of metrics to generate more cash to pay teachers what they are worth, but I digress.

I had said this before, but if the Canadians can buy the same drugs by teh same makers for substantially lowe costs, why can’t we replicate the metrics that get them there, here?

Of course our example is that if you can’t afford the treatment, you don’t get it. Even if it means death. Which is exactly your point.

I think that the reforms that you have suggested for the failed health care system we have in the states are very good. Maybe, that is because you have based your ideas on “care” instead of profit. We have had more than enough experience with the HMO based medical system in our family. Going back to 1991, when our daughter as a little girl had to have life-saving surgery, and forward again, to the last several years when we lost of several elderly family members, we have just about seen it all.!

One tiny thing disturbed me back in 1991 and it seems, no one ever mentions this type of financial padding. The copy of the final medical bill forwarded to us by our HMO, listed the cost of a Q-tip at $2.00 and the cost of a single dose of Tylenol at $2.00! Hospitals buy such supplies in bulk at reduced wholesale prices. What would the cost of a tongue depressor be in today’s medical market? No wonder no one can afford medical care! Keep writing…KWW

God Bless America, God Save The Republic