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Search engines are still around, ya know? Heavily research your health before turning to advice from a medium trying to sell you used cars and greasy death burgers from McDonalds right after the drug commercial.
There is also advertising. I utilize all sources of information. That is why I’m not a liberal or anarcist moron.
In order to amortize the huge fixed costs of r and d advertising the product is necessary just like in other products. If you sell a million pills you can sell them at a lower price than if you sell a thousand pills.
Whataburger guy myself. Them greasy burgers taste pretty good. Moderation is the key. Statins help.
It's the ACCESS to the healthcare that is the problem.
Eventually we will have some type of expanded Medicare-for-all program in the US. Don't know when, but it's an inevitability. There just isn't much value-added for private health insurance. If there's profit being made by the health insurance companies, then either the doctors are getting paid too little or the patients/premium payers are being charged too much.
It's the ACCESS to the healthcare that is the problem.
Eventually we will have some type of expanded Medicare-for-all program in the US. Don't know when, but it's an inevitability. There just isn't much value-added for private health insurance. If there's profit being made by the health insurance companies, then either the doctors are getting paid too little or the patients/premium payers are being charged too much.
Yes, insurance companies make too much, and doctors make too much, but the patients seem to make too little! That's the crux of the problem!
Big Pharma spends more on advertising than they do on research! Ask your doctor if another Big Pharma commercial is right for you!
The US and New Zealand are the only two countries that allow pharmaceutical companies to direct market to the end consumer.
There’s a study that shows if a patient asks for a specific medication, he/ she is substantially more likely to receive a script for it than a patient with similar symptoms who did not ask what “ fill in the blank†can do for them. Parmecutical companies know this which is why they advertise. Big Pharma is a substantial lobby at the state and Federal level.
The cost of direct consumer marketing is baked into the price of the filled prescription.
There is also advertising. I utilize all sources of information. That is why I’m not a liberal or anarcist moron.
In order to amortize the huge fixed costs of r and d advertising the product is necessary just like in other products. If you sell a million pills you can sell them at a lower price than if you sell a thousand pills.
Whataburger guy myself. Them greasy burgers taste pretty good. Moderation is the key. Statins help.
The problem is, that in America, those million pills are sold at the highest price possible! Economy of scale doesn't matter to this industry. The rest of the world has learned to negotiate a lower price ...or the drug won't be allowed to be sold in their country! The drug companies know that if they have to write off Europe and Japan, that their "big payday" will go away. Making something is better than making nothing! The USA should be doing the same thing!
Other countries have figured out a much better balance of their crony capitalist/socialist health care theft schemes.
Agreed there.
The answer isn't to tweak the collectivist scheme some more...it's to abolish it.
There is no factual evidence of a free -market healthcare system, anywhere.
What makes you think the third most populous country in the world could pull it off?
Dental insurance is rather limited. Yet the cost of dental care has kept pace with overall healthcare.
Cosmetic surgery is not covered by insurance and is the closest thing we have to free market. Yet the cost of cosmetic surgery has kept pace with overall healthcare.
...and we have the most expensive health care system in the world. So, then, what exactly are we paying for? Insurance companies and incompetence? Ineffectiveness? Any thoughts as to why we should not have UHC like every other developed nation in the world...?
Health care and banking are two heavily regulated industries. All the regulations prevent them from lowering the cost.
They are also some of the industries that have the most lobbyists for Congress to make sure the prices stay "high" and the regulations protect the "guilty"!
Not including new treatments, US produces more new medicines than the rest of world combined. In another word, the rest of the world rake in all the health benefits but contribute very little, and US is funding their health care.
Also most "developed world" rely on US to provide national defense - they would all be dead without US.
Ah, so Chile and Cuba rely on us for national defense?? We defend Singapore, New Zealand.
Note - many of these co-called "medicines" are well known. Oxycontin, for one. The Pharma Bro brought a few to market and Theranos worked miracles (in separating people from their money).
Rick Scott, when he was at United Health Care, received the largest fines (Fraud) in the history of the USA.
No doubt we are among the worst. Other surveys have us at #37. We need giant foam fingers that say "we're number #37".
The proof is in the pudding.
We get the least for the most. Most Americans who have had vast experience with our health care system agree. Heck, my doctor friends agree.
Many people are killed by "medicines"....maybe a bit more slowly, but they are not the answer to good health. The US consumes the most opiates in the world - by far. Obesity and poor diet and stress drive the other medicines.
Hey, they even came up with one for "restless leg syndrome".
You also forgot to mention that the US Pharma industry is very focused on stuff that will sell BIG - that means they don't spend much time or energy on stuff that only applies to a couple hundred thousand people (even if they have a horrible disease).
Note - I am not discounting true breakthroughs in the USA. Salk was my hero. But if that was today, they'd withhold the vaccine from people and make them pay through the nose for it. Back then, when asked about patenting the drugs, Salk replied "What? You cannot patent this and you cannot patent the Sun"...
I would say we have come a long way backwards in our thinking.
It IS a matter of money. At almost 11K per person per year we are being ripped off - let alone the uninsured that we all have to pay for. We will NEVER get our deficit and debt down without going to a highly regulated universal health care AND also blending in the other elements (eating, lifestyle, exercise, pollutants, etc.).
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