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Fast forward 10 years. Top story on HN is "I'm in excruciating pain and my doctor is refusing to prescribe me a painkiller because he's afraid of losing his lic

Fast forward 10 years. Top story on HN is "I'm in excruciating pain and my doctor is refusing to prescribe me a painkiller because he's afraid of losing his license". Top comment: "This is ridiculous! Why are all these regulations preventing people from getting proper health care instead of actually helping them?" No, the solution is not putting doctors in jail. No, the solution is not piling regulations on top of more regulations. Only thing that's needed is educating people and providing less addictive alternatives. If the pack of pills has "Warning: this is highly addictive! Use only in emergency!" in big bold letters, then people will think twice about taking them.

tryingagainbro 9y ago
Once you take kickbacks, your "professional judgment" is clouded. Are you giving that because it's better for me or because you'll get a bonus for prescribing that?
- pakitan 9y ago
  Kickbacks/bribes are absolutely despicable, there is no argument about that. I'm just against some elaborate set of rules that is going to regulate what doctors can prescribe or not. These decisions should be left to the doctors' discretion. And bribe cases should absolutely be prosecuted.
jasonlaramburu 9y ago
They tried this with cigarettes. It did not really work: https://www.rand.org/blog/2014/09/graphic-warning-labels-on-cigarettes-are-scary-but.html https://www.rand.org/blog/2014/09/graphic-warning-labels-on-...
- pakitan 9y ago
  The cigarette warning labels are working just fine. The point is to warn people of the dangers and practically every smoker is already aware of those and yet they choose to smoke anyway. That's perfectly fine in my book - as long as one is making an informed decision, they should be able to pick the poison that kills them.
  - GordonS 9y ago
    I don't know about the US, but in the UK at least I reckon it's the taxes that work better than the labels (the price of a pack of cigs has risen dramatically over the past 15 years or so)
    - orf 9y ago
      They also banned small 10 packs, and 7.5g pouches. This seems to really stop people from buying a small pack for a night out, at least it stopped me. That is until you buy a larger pack and have some.left over the next day that is.
- WalterBright 9y ago
  At least they could no longer pretend surprise at the damage cigarettes did to them. I say "pretend" because it was no great revelation in the 1960s that smoking was bad for you. My father said they were called "coffin nails" back in the 1930s, and the first thing doctors routinely advised their patients was to quit smoking. And, of course, the black, scarred lung of a smoker was ridiculously obvious to any person who did an autopsy or operation on a smoker.
root_axis 9y ago
Putting doctors in jail isn't a solution to the problem, but it is legal justice for the crime of prescribing dangerously inappropriate medication for financial benefit.
alkonaut 9y ago
Warning labels is one part of the solution. Limiting kickbacks and tightening those regulations can be another. Making sure teachers in medical schools don't tell their students that opioids aren't addictive is another. Information to the public about what pain and pain treatment is, and what treatments are effective compared to their side effects is yet another.

tryingagainbro 9y ago

Once you take kickbacks, your "professional judgment" is clouded. Are you giving that because it's better for me or because you'll get a bonus for prescribing that?

pakitan 9y ago
Kickbacks/bribes are absolutely despicable, there is no argument about that. I'm just against some elaborate set of rules that is going to regulate what doctors can prescribe or not. These decisions should be left to the doctors' discretion. And bribe cases should absolutely be prosecuted.

jasonlaramburu 9y ago

They tried this with cigarettes. It did not really work: https://www.rand.org/blog/2014/09/graphic-warning-labels-on-cigarettes-are-scary-but.html https://www.rand.org/blog/2014/09/graphic-warning-labels-on-...

pakitan 9y ago
The cigarette warning labels are working just fine. The point is to warn people of the dangers and practically every smoker is already aware of those and yet they choose to smoke anyway. That's perfectly fine in my book - as long as one is making an informed decision, they should be able to pick the poison that kills them.
- GordonS 9y ago
  I don't know about the US, but in the UK at least I reckon it's the taxes that work better than the labels (the price of a pack of cigs has risen dramatically over the past 15 years or so)
  - orf 9y ago
    They also banned small 10 packs, and 7.5g pouches. This seems to really stop people from buying a small pack for a night out, at least it stopped me. That is until you buy a larger pack and have some.left over the next day that is.
WalterBright 9y ago
At least they could no longer pretend surprise at the damage cigarettes did to them. I say "pretend" because it was no great revelation in the 1960s that smoking was bad for you. My father said they were called "coffin nails" back in the 1930s, and the first thing doctors routinely advised their patients was to quit smoking. And, of course, the black, scarred lung of a smoker was ridiculously obvious to any person who did an autopsy or operation on a smoker.

root_axis 9y ago

Putting doctors in jail isn't a solution to the problem, but it is legal justice for the crime of prescribing dangerously inappropriate medication for financial benefit.

alkonaut 9y ago

Warning labels is one part of the solution. Limiting kickbacks and tightening those regulations can be another. Making sure teachers in medical schools don't tell their students that opioids aren't addictive is another. Information to the public about what pain and pain treatment is, and what treatments are effective compared to their side effects is yet another.