Take your pick

Even around the 1990's around 1/3 of all bankruptcies were cause by healthcare, and another 1/3 by divorce. only 1% were caused by credit card debit... and the amount of bankruptcies because of healthcare issues has now risen to half of all bankruptcies. I know not a lot of people file bankruptcies, but I know two families that have because of healthcare issues, which I think is two too many because these people had really good jobs too.


Healthcare, which now includes shit like paxil (marijuana), is way too expensive.

Blame a good chunk of it on the litigation-happy trial lawyers like John Edwards. They take money from the HealthCare Insurance companies, who pass it on to the Doctors/Hospitals, and they pass the buck onto us.

And I'd say French Healthcare or Canadian Healthcare is a bigger oxymoron

agreed. Except the french healthcare system is pretty good. But, then again, they do devote over half their budget to it.

Uncontrolled gambling is a medical bankruptcy?

Yeah. Imagine that. Using half the budget for saving lives instead of destroying them. Crazy Europeans.

Yeah, France did such a good job of saving lives in Summer 03.

as opposed to...?

Because god forbid people sue incompetent doctors.

You guys know that drug companies actually spend more on advertising their drugs than developing new ones? Think of all the new prescriptions and cures we would have if they wern't so concerned with profits.

The problem with our healthcare system is that it is for-profit. They care about profits first, people second. I really don't like the idea of a socialist system that much, but when the health insurance companies, drug companies, doctors, and the medical malpractice insurance companies are all in it for the profit, their massive gains are paid by us.

I have seen lots (more than 10) pretty decent size examples of this (which i'll post over time)... and the vioxx scandal is completely related. The drug companies have turned into mass marketing machines, and have already outsourced decent amounts of their research efforts to other countries. you have to ask, what are you really paying for, when you get prescribed paxil which is basically pot. Chris Rocks's standup show replayed on comedy central a while ago comes to mind.

Sarcasm. France let thousands of their elderly die because they didn't have the climate controls installed in buildings nor the medical ability to deal with people suffering from the heat.

And if you need surgery in France or Canada, good luck. It'll take weeks on the waiting list before you can get in. Not saying our system is perfect (it isn't), just better.

OH, pwned!

There are a lot of problems with the medical system. The problems start with the patients.

Somewhere I read that some rediculus number of kids were on some kind of behavorial medication. 1 in 3 or something. The exact number isn't really important. The point I'm trying to highlight is that people are looking for the solutions to all of their problems in a pill. I've run into way too many people lately who are on drugs to take care of the side effects of the drugs that take care of the side effects of the drugs that "fix" something that probably wasn't that big of a deal in the first place. What it does do is create a psychological dependance on medication. It's kind of funny how we managed as a society to make it to the recent past without these drugs to fix everything. Sure, there are some people out there who legimidately have problems. But the vast majority of people need to suck it up, deal with it and move on like their grandparents did and not look to a drug induced haze to try and solve all of their probelms.

Then there's the lawyers. If a doctor delievers a baby with some kind of birth defect, it isn't unlikely that he's getting sued. The fact that these things happen it completely lost on people these days. Everyone want to have someone to blame. And it isn't going to be them who had the DNA that couldn't sort itself out. It has to be the doctor who didn't perscribe the right medications or didn't discover the problem fast enough. Even if (s)he is the best doctor in the world, if they see enough patients, eventually they are going to make a mistake. Everyone makes mistakes, it doesn't matter how careful you are. Should you be sued for that? There is a difference between mistakes and negligance but juries and lawyers don't care. We need significant proctection for medical professionals. It costs something like $100k per year for medical malpractice insurance for a nurse (not a doctor mind you) who works in a maternity ward in Las Vegas. How much money do you think these people make? Even if the hospital subsidies some or all of it, who do you think is really paying for it?

Maybe government could help offset costs? What has the government ever poured more money into that didn't become a complete mess? Public education? How about the highways? I think the only real solution is personal accountability. Doctors need to stop prescribing tests and drugs that really aren't needed. Patients need to stop demanding drugs (because it helped their friend) and tests (because the insurance company is paying for it) that they really don't understand. Patients also need to audit their bills and not just rubber stamp them to the insurance company. Hospitals need to be committed to maintaining standards.

The government can pass whatever laws and shuffle whatever funds. The only really effective reform is going to come at a grassroots level completely apart for the government.

Starkind is cool. LOL

But there is the other extream of HMO not letting the doctors do the necessary tests.

on a sidenote-Jpj85- isn't wed night a little early in the week to get waisted?