Re:US spends most on health care but has worst health outcomes
by luminadiffusion on Monday February 06, 2023 @03:32AM
(#34674807)
The major financial players in our healthcare system (pharma, for-profit hospitals/clinics) prop up and exceedingly complex system of insurance to make sure they maximize their profits. Their expensive lobbyists are in every state and federal capitol making sure that our elected officials are confused about the real issues. They then go on to buy air time and bribe the news anchors and outlets to provide positive airtime for them, while making out single-payer healthcare to be the sole step prior to Communism taking over America.
Pharma uses the windfall profits they make from delivering subpar health outcomes to buy cute TV slots about "ask your doctor if [INSERT DRUG NAME] is right for you" - while bribing your doctor with special "incentives" to prescribe their drug.
The insurance companies run a mob racket. The executives collude with the drug companies to make sure that [INSERT DRUG NAME] is added to their coverage list, even if it has mediocre or questionable performance. Don't worry though, their actuaries will balance it out by figuring out how to deny coverage and make cuts to necessary care to cover the difference. (AHEM, just happened with that new Alzheimers drug)
The for-profit clinics and hospitals specialize in lots of quick, profitable, and ineffective treatments and seem to extract their profits at the expense of the burn out in the doctors. US doctors spend an average of 12 minutes to see a patient in a 1 hour consult - because they spend an average of 25 minutes per visit filling out paperwork to justify their recommendations about why you actually need the care you've sought.
All of the players collude with the insurance industry to tell a story about how they somehow all need windfall profits to cover being the most advanced, innovative, healthcare system in the world. As if the "advanced" technology is somehow a substitute for positive health outcomes.
This whole entire industry is a huge Ponzi scheme. Our US Congressmen make laws to restrict Medicare from applying it's bargaining power to get good deals on drugs - so the whole damn industry is subsidized by massively overinflated prices that add trillions to our federal debt every single year.
Nauseatingly hypocritical Congressmen scream about fiscal responsibility while simultaneously passing Medicare bargaining restrictions and adding trillions to our federal debt each year. This process isn't just cynical, it should be criminal. This industry is literally driving the US government into bankruptcy and sacrificing the future of our nation - but none dare call it treason. Shame.
TLDR: The whole medical field justifies their excess profits as supporting the "free market" in "generating innovation". In reality: the market is anything BUT a free market; innovation is not a substitute for positive health outcomes; and, their excess profits are primarily used for propaganda and bribery purposes to justify their own existence. This whole system is maximizing profits for a limited number of players at the expense of our doctors, our patients, the fiscal health of our republic, and the future of our country. Welcome to 'Merica.
Pharma uses the windfall profits they make from delivering subpar health outcomes to buy cute TV slots about "ask your doctor if [INSERT DRUG NAME] is right for you" - while bribing your doctor with special "incentives" to prescribe their drug.
The insurance companies run a mob racket. The executives collude with the drug companies to make sure that [INSERT DRUG NAME] is added to their coverage list, even if it has mediocre or questionable performance. Don't worry though, their actuaries will balance it out by figuring out how to deny coverage and make cuts to necessary care to cover the difference. (AHEM, just happened with that new Alzheimers drug)
The for-profit clinics and hospitals specialize in lots of quick, profitable, and ineffective treatments and seem to extract their profits at the expense of the burn out in the doctors. US doctors spend an average of 12 minutes to see a patient in a 1 hour consult - because they spend an average of 25 minutes per visit filling out paperwork to justify their recommendations about why you actually need the care you've sought.
All of the players collude with the insurance industry to tell a story about how they somehow all need windfall profits to cover being the most advanced, innovative, healthcare system in the world. As if the "advanced" technology is somehow a substitute for positive health outcomes.
This whole entire industry is a huge Ponzi scheme. Our US Congressmen make laws to restrict Medicare from applying it's bargaining power to get good deals on drugs - so the whole damn industry is subsidized by massively overinflated prices that add trillions to our federal debt every single year.
Nauseatingly hypocritical Congressmen scream about fiscal responsibility while simultaneously passing Medicare bargaining restrictions and adding trillions to our federal debt each year. This process isn't just cynical, it should be criminal. This industry is literally driving the US government into bankruptcy and sacrificing the future of our nation - but none dare call it treason. Shame.
TLDR: The whole medical field justifies their excess profits as supporting the "free market" in "generating innovation". In reality: the market is anything BUT a free market; innovation is not a substitute for positive health outcomes; and, their excess profits are primarily used for propaganda and bribery purposes to justify their own existence. This whole system is maximizing profits for a limited number of players at the expense of our doctors, our patients, the fiscal health of our republic, and the future of our country. Welcome to 'Merica.