The entire medico-pharmaceutical, pseudo-health care industry(ies) (aren't they really just one, big, sorry, messy industry?) is so corrupt that I've long decided not to have anything to do with them. From testing to family doctors to meds to vaccines to fake diseases to mis-diagnoses and iatrogenic nightmares to the simple, backwards and pervasive idea that we actually need the industry to maintain good health, the whole lot is a matrix of nonsense just begging for us to step out of it. And I'm still amazed daily by how few see this.
I'm with you 100%. I've worked in healthcare my whole life and have watched its destruction from the beginning. It started back in the early 80's when Physicians sitting at the helm of Hospital's Board of Directors were replaced by those with degrees in Business Management/Finance. Hospitals ALWAYS ran in the red because Dr's would always put the needs of the patient before best business practices. Hospitals were funded by the State and tax payer $$$ needed to be used appropriately....meaning that if you were running in the red and begging for more money, you weren't accountable. It ALL went downhill after that as the Insurance Industry started it's rise.
I won't go see a medical Dr. unless it's absolutely necessary....and I pay for concierge medicine! Any time that I go, I get to meet with Dr. Rx Pad or a RNP who wants to delve into some "trauma" that I may be experiencing even when I have physical symptoms. It's a total shit show caused by the Insurance Industry and greedy Big Pharma. Count me out!
It doesn't have to be that way. I attended a talk with a former CEO of a major healthcare system. He had recently retired. He spoke about how messed up the incentives were and estimated that it would take decades to get healthcare back on track. I think that he wanted to wipe his conscience clean.
Many people don't understand how messed up it is until someone they know gets sick or has an accident. Then you see how much of the healthcare system that ordinary people can afford feels like a poorly managed McDonald's.
If you're going to point out how Trump is not solving this problem, might as well point out how Democrats haven't solved it either. This and the defense contractor arrangement are the most intractable lobbies in Washington.
Thanks! I didn't know about that, but I will commence to reading. A key driver of cost, which I hope can be addressed someday soon, is the FDA's requirement to prove not only safety, but efficacy. Here's a boring but brief timeline of procedural evolution:
Clinical trials for demonstrating efficacy help the FDA cover their ass, but massively increase costs, with dubious benefits. There are many new drugs which are terrible bargains in a cost/benefit analysis, although they technically work--albeit poorly. The market is a much better gauge of ultimate value. Many of today's miracle drugs were originally approved for completely different purposes. Some in fact were disastrous in one context, but therapeutic in another. Difficult to determine in clinical trials:
The pharmaceutical complex probably long discovered the long-term cures and intentionally suppresses their readily available marketing. Short-term fake "cures" instigating coincidentally rampant "side effects" means people trapped in a vicious cycle buying more and more drugs to cure those side effects while causing more.
Better to just live a healthy life and avoid the meds altogether:
- ensure frequent outdoors cardiovascular exercise (bike more instead of driving all the time)
- utilize the zest from organic citrus for brewing tea and soak the pith in sugar to cold-extract a vibrantly fresh syrup (lemon is best)
- find high-quality sprouted whole grain products
- consume enough vitamin D3 and B12, ideally from natural sources and not fortification/supplements (sardines/anchovies/mackerel should be good)
- bulk organic frozen berries are both delicious and better-priced
- replace toxic "vegetable" oils (i.e. soybean, canola) with olive, avocado, and/or clarified butter (grass-fed butter is best)
- search for pasture-raised varieties of meat, eggs, and dairy when possible
Why are prices so much higher in the US? Governments with socialized healthcare systems hold tremendous leverage in negotiating prices with big pharma which limits profit margins. The US does not, so big pharma jacks up drug prices to insurance companies, employers who self-insure and (most of all) CMS.
A society controlled by health care companies will never be healthy.
It's so sad ...
The entire medico-pharmaceutical, pseudo-health care industry(ies) (aren't they really just one, big, sorry, messy industry?) is so corrupt that I've long decided not to have anything to do with them. From testing to family doctors to meds to vaccines to fake diseases to mis-diagnoses and iatrogenic nightmares to the simple, backwards and pervasive idea that we actually need the industry to maintain good health, the whole lot is a matrix of nonsense just begging for us to step out of it. And I'm still amazed daily by how few see this.
I'm with you 100%. I've worked in healthcare my whole life and have watched its destruction from the beginning. It started back in the early 80's when Physicians sitting at the helm of Hospital's Board of Directors were replaced by those with degrees in Business Management/Finance. Hospitals ALWAYS ran in the red because Dr's would always put the needs of the patient before best business practices. Hospitals were funded by the State and tax payer $$$ needed to be used appropriately....meaning that if you were running in the red and begging for more money, you weren't accountable. It ALL went downhill after that as the Insurance Industry started it's rise.
I won't go see a medical Dr. unless it's absolutely necessary....and I pay for concierge medicine! Any time that I go, I get to meet with Dr. Rx Pad or a RNP who wants to delve into some "trauma" that I may be experiencing even when I have physical symptoms. It's a total shit show caused by the Insurance Industry and greedy Big Pharma. Count me out!
It doesn't have to be that way. I attended a talk with a former CEO of a major healthcare system. He had recently retired. He spoke about how messed up the incentives were and estimated that it would take decades to get healthcare back on track. I think that he wanted to wipe his conscience clean.
Wiping your conscience clean AFTER you have used the system to extract your own wealth (while denying people their health) is pretty despicable IMHO.
Yeah. He retired very comfortably...
Many people don't understand how messed up it is until someone they know gets sick or has an accident. Then you see how much of the healthcare system that ordinary people can afford feels like a poorly managed McDonald's.
At least McDonald's serves food, and food is essential to health. "Health-care" ends up being antithetical to health in many, many cases.
Why does no one blame Congress for creating a rogue Pharma in
2016,when it passed a Bill,written
by 1,400 Pharma lobbyists?!The 21st Century Cures Act became
law,when O'bama signed it;the Act
let Pharma,for the first time in US
history,promote off-label use for
any already FDA-approved drug,
device,vaccine...anything!Up until
then,only Physicians could do this
and Pharma would have been fined!The Act also gutted the FDA
watchdog status over Pharma;it
ended the random controlled
study as the gold standard to
prove efficacy & safety in Pharma
products;so,that now,Pharm. Cos. only have to submit paperwork to
the FDA;thus,making it a "rubber
stamp" for approval & PharmCos
aren't required to conduct costly
studies:This "Act" was passed in
2016;but not enacted until 2021;
right in the middle of the C-19
pandemic...with emergency use
authorization;how convenient!One
of the "adverse effects"of this Act
became the loss of Physician
autonomy!Pharma and the Gov't.
could promote off-label use of drugs & ersatz vaccines;but,no
Doctor could mention ivermectin
or HCQ without being threatened
with loss of licensure!Dr. Peter
McCullough lost his and wrote a
book about it!Dr. RW Malone,an
inventor of mRNA tech,was defamed!This Act is still in effect,
and like the octopus the Gov't is,it
has its tentacles wrapped around
nearly everything inside a hospital
and a Doctor's office:Until
Congress is forced to rescind this
Act,it will continue to dominate the
Art and practice of Medicine!
Agreed. There's a new healthcare bill. Call your senators and rep. https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/5283776-bipartisan-senators-offer-new-bill-aimed-at-lowering-drug-prices/
If you're going to point out how Trump is not solving this problem, might as well point out how Democrats haven't solved it either. This and the defense contractor arrangement are the most intractable lobbies in Washington.
There's a new bill to address prescription prices. Call your representative. Check it out: https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/5283776-bipartisan-senators-offer-new-bill-aimed-at-lowering-drug-prices/
Thanks! I didn't know about that, but I will commence to reading. A key driver of cost, which I hope can be addressed someday soon, is the FDA's requirement to prove not only safety, but efficacy. Here's a boring but brief timeline of procedural evolution:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4326266/
Clinical trials for demonstrating efficacy help the FDA cover their ass, but massively increase costs, with dubious benefits. There are many new drugs which are terrible bargains in a cost/benefit analysis, although they technically work--albeit poorly. The market is a much better gauge of ultimate value. Many of today's miracle drugs were originally approved for completely different purposes. Some in fact were disastrous in one context, but therapeutic in another. Difficult to determine in clinical trials:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3573415/
The pharmaceutical complex probably long discovered the long-term cures and intentionally suppresses their readily available marketing. Short-term fake "cures" instigating coincidentally rampant "side effects" means people trapped in a vicious cycle buying more and more drugs to cure those side effects while causing more.
Better to just live a healthy life and avoid the meds altogether:
- ensure frequent outdoors cardiovascular exercise (bike more instead of driving all the time)
- utilize the zest from organic citrus for brewing tea and soak the pith in sugar to cold-extract a vibrantly fresh syrup (lemon is best)
- find high-quality sprouted whole grain products
- consume enough vitamin D3 and B12, ideally from natural sources and not fortification/supplements (sardines/anchovies/mackerel should be good)
- bulk organic frozen berries are both delicious and better-priced
- replace toxic "vegetable" oils (i.e. soybean, canola) with olive, avocado, and/or clarified butter (grass-fed butter is best)
- search for pasture-raised varieties of meat, eggs, and dairy when possible
Healthy living is great, but it can't cure cancer or auto-immune diseases.
Why are prices so much higher in the US? Governments with socialized healthcare systems hold tremendous leverage in negotiating prices with big pharma which limits profit margins. The US does not, so big pharma jacks up drug prices to insurance companies, employers who self-insure and (most of all) CMS.
Exactly!