4 ms·
Start of American healthcare insurance problems
- tcj_phx 9y agoThere are some good points in this article, but it glosses over the ineffectiveness of early 20th century medicine. Insurance pays for medical treatments that are helpful, and pays for medical treatments that make the patients' conditions worse. Doctors don't have to care too much about the effectiveness of what they promote because they get paid anyways. The formation of the Medical Guild (1845 -> 1935) is at the root of the world's healthcare problem. Modern doctors don't appreciate the corruption at the foundation of the modern medical era.
- cmurf 9y agoNarrow examples of this: People with colds (virus) going to the doctor and demand anti-biotics. Ignorant patients who become consumers and find doctors willing to give patients what they want, rather than only what they need. And we have anti-biotic resistant bacteria as a result (in part) of this. Another cause of resistance, patients who don't follow directions on prescriptions, to consume the entire prescription. They start to feel better, and stop taking them. The surviving bacteria is what enables future resistance. Virtual addiction to sleep drugs like Ambien, which the PDR explicitly says should be limited prescription that comes with a sleep specialist referral, is routinely renewed for years way beyond what is ethical, because consumers demand it and will effectively punish a doctor who will not give them a prescription. We live in a "why should I change my lifestyle when I can just take a pill?" society. There is no possible way to fix this with the system we have, where the doctor incentive is to say yes, which means profit, and no means a lost sale.