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Politics : A US National Health Care System? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TimF who wrote (6111)	2/13/2009 1:00:56 PM
From: Lane3	1 Recommendation Respond to of 42652

Another point about drugs and the American market is that Americans are first to so many of them and also use them off label, both of which generate sales. I would expect less of that in any managed system. We get less of that even here in HMO environments. Even with independent medicine doctors tend to follow protocols because that's the way insurance pays and that's the way they avoid lawsuits. With a managed system, everyone would be operate by protocol. I ran headlong into that not too long ago when my blood glucose went up. The first instinct of my doctor was the protocol. Since I wasn't yet officially diabetic, that is, a fasting blood glucose level of 128 on two, I think, tests. There is no intervention in the protocol until the threshold is reached. Which leaves the patient waiting until diabetes is diagnosed before treatment. Well, screw that. I brought it down on my own. But the experience got me thinking, that and reading about the protocol for coronary artery disease, which is basically to wait until cholesterol exceeds the parameters, which it will, and prescribing a statin, then waiting until there's a blockage, which there will be, at which point you get either a stent or a coffin. Seems to me that a wellness approach is preferable to a protocol approach. With managed care you get enforced protocols. End of rant. <g>