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

To: skinowski who wrote (18426)	7/22/2010 10:56:05 AM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 42652

But, somehow, it works. Surgeons do beautiful operations... Internists diagnose and treat... Radiologists visualize... pharmas produce life saving drugs... etc. I disagree that it works. It works in some arenas. We have an epidemic of obesity, diabetes and assorted metabolic disorders being "treated" by those same internists. Half the country is on antidepressants and the like. I would say that primary care, at least, has has reached the point of where chronic illnesses are being fostered rather than treated. And the whole thing costs too much. I don't have an issue with your radiologists and surgeons. Pharmas are a mixed bag.

To: skinowski who wrote (18426)	7/22/2010 1:45:28 PM
From: dybdahl	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 42652

But, somehow, it works. Surgeons do beautiful operations... Internists diagnose and treat... Radiologists visualize... pharmas produce life saving drugs... etc. None of this is perfect, but it works - better than at any time in human history. That was not, what he was referring to. The current system optimizes well defined procedures well. But if you look at the pharmacy industry, they have much more interesmt to sell drugs that keep you alive, than drugs that cure you, simple because the "keep alive" drugs are some that you would buy each month, whereas the cures would be a one-time sale. To my knowledge, there are no pharmacy cures to cancer, migraine, epilepsy, AIDS, diabetes and many others. I'm sure that some diabetes types can be cured with a pill or a simple surgery, I know that some types of epilepsy can be cured with non-epilepsy drugs, but the financial motivation to find out is very low, sometimes nonexistent in a ROI-based consumer-payer health market.