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This is always going to happen given the nature of democracy. For afflictions that have a well-defined demographic (HIV, breast cancer) you get an easily-organi

This is always going to happen given the nature of democracy. For afflictions that have a well-defined demographic (HIV, breast cancer) you get an easily-organized voting bloc, and diffuse costs across a broad population. But when the afflicted are themselves more diverse, it's much more difficult to mount the same activism. I don't mean to get political, but this is a danger of governmental involvement in health care. Given scarcity of resources, it's necessary to prioritize their allocation. Somebody's got to decide where that funding goes, and this is the kernel of truth that was exaggerated into the "death panel" meme.

PaulHoule 11y ago
Private organizations can feel the pinch from activists too. I think also some groups are better or worse at marketing and/or lucky vs unlucky. For instance, diabetes is a diverse condition and the American Diabetes Association is right up there with the Breast Cancer Industrial Complex. We even see medical clinics in our area that are working pretty hard to figure out how to treat medicare patients with that condition both properly and effectively even though it has taken a long time. So far as politics goes, chronic pain is connected strongly with disability and pushing it back could get a lot of people off disability and back in the workforce again.