4 ms·
I have had to deal with third world programmers. I am not particularly interested in entrusting my life to the medical equivalent. US students are free to go
by russell 17y ago
I have had to deal with third world programmers. I am not particularly interested in entrusting my life to the medical equivalent. US students are free to go to their med schools but prefer US schools because the quality of the education is so much higher.
The US has excellent health care, but there are two problems: availability and price. If you dont have employer paid insurance, medicare, or excellent health, you are pretty much shut out. The pricing structure is out of whack. My SO takes a drug that costs $700 per month. It went generic in February and in October full competition will kick in and it will probably cost $20-30 per month. Meanwhile we are paying for excessive profits, television ads, and salesmen. I dont know what the price is in Canada or Mexico, but probably much less.
Another example of a completely whacked out pricing system is hospitalization. Several years back I had a pretty routine routine heart procedure. The bill from the hospital was $80,000. The insurance company allowed $20,000 and I only had to pay $2000. Someone without insurance would have been hit with the whole $80,000. And then there was the anesthesiologist who didnt participate in the insurance plan and billed me $4,000. Nobody told me about him beforehand, and you don't do much comparison shopping in those circumstances.
- rokhayakebe 17y agoMaybe we could make it illegal for drug companies to advertise directly to consumers.
- apsurd 17y agoThat is actually a quite elegant solution, but likely never to happen. The pharma lobbying muscle is up there with casinos.
- russell 17y agoI think consumers need the materials to make an informed decision. Television ads don't accomplish that. A beautiful woman dancing through a field of flowers doesn't tell me the benefits or side effects, so I agree with you there. Drug ads on TV are about as socially acceptable as cigarette ads. The same picture in print with the full PDR dump on the back may be a different case. The information is there to read, although I have seen a distinct difference in quality between the information for physician and the advice for patients.