2 ms·

This isn’t a question of lived experience. It’s simply not the case that the FDA approves all treatments or that an FDA approved treatment is necessarily justif

This isn’t a question of lived experience. It’s simply not the case that the FDA approves all treatments or that an FDA approved treatment is necessarily justified in some particular case. I do agree that a lot of people seem to believe that’s how it works. There’s some objectively correct treatment, the doctors uncover what it is, and I have an unconditional right to get that treatment no matter what it costs. But no healthcare system does or could work that way. You have to consider tradeoffs and control costs somewhere. You can build a system that makes it seem that way to the patients; that’s why I like Kaiser. In my opinion it’s more user friendly that way. But the tradeoff is that cost controls are imposed directly on what doctors are willing to prescribe. There’s many stories of Kaiser doctors refusing to prescribe expensive treatments that other doctors would, because as a matter of policy they believe some lesser treatment would be sufficient.

alp1n3_eth 2y ago
"Have fun suffering and hopefully you don't die as we go through 8 medications that will most likely fail, but there's a slim chance they'll work!"
- SpicyLemonZest 2y ago
  That's how medicine works. It sucks to have conditions that are hard to treat. To be clear, a lot of people have very valid complaints about the US healthcare system. I'm not saying everything's perfect or even that every improvement would involve a tradeoff. But every medical system on the planet, including whichever ones you have in mind as better than the US, has controls on how expensive drugs can be used when cheaper ones might work.
OutOfHere 2y ago
The whole insurance system is a scam. Britain does it better. For non emergencies, I would much prefer we go back to patients paying cash, and getting medical loans when they need. For emergencies I would prefer the government cover them directly without any intermediary. Because of the insurance system, things cost 10x more than they should, which makes it an actively harmful system. If it were to go away, competition and efficiencies would drive down prices 10x.

alp1n3_eth 2y ago

"Have fun suffering and hopefully you don't die as we go through 8 medications that will most likely fail, but there's a slim chance they'll work!"

SpicyLemonZest 2y ago
That's how medicine works. It sucks to have conditions that are hard to treat. To be clear, a lot of people have very valid complaints about the US healthcare system. I'm not saying everything's perfect or even that every improvement would involve a tradeoff. But every medical system on the planet, including whichever ones you have in mind as better than the US, has controls on how expensive drugs can be used when cheaper ones might work.

OutOfHere 2y ago

The whole insurance system is a scam. Britain does it better. For non emergencies, I would much prefer we go back to patients paying cash, and getting medical loans when they need. For emergencies I would prefer the government cover them directly without any intermediary. Because of the insurance system, things cost 10x more than they should, which makes it an actively harmful system. If it were to go away, competition and efficiencies would drive down prices 10x.