Brief anecdote re: medical costs
I got a benign growth on my forehead removed surgically in a routine office visit. When I complained about not being given alternatives to the small scar, I was referred to a specialist for another such growth, who happily told me the cost for a procedure called Mohs would be $5k to $15k and take 4-8hrs in the office.
I called a family member who is a doctor, who told me about Aldara, a cream that would likely do the same thing. Neither physician told me about this, until I confronted them, and when I used it the growths were dissolved.
So, here we have an escalation based on judgements of the only resource a layman has, the medical/legal/industrial community, ignoring a $200 treatment in favor of $5k to $15k treatment. The profit motive is well-hidden beneath medical technology, but amounts to a choice between making $100 profit or $10,000 profit.
The solution is full disclosure and a gov't sponsored up-to-date database of disorders, treatments and outcomes, easily accessible to the layman. |
