After reading this week's topic about health care, it reminded me of how immense the problems are. We (the U.S.) spend so much money on health care, yet we do not have significantly better outcomes than other developed countries. We put so much money into newer technologies and treatments, that we have to pass those costs along to patients, and again....our outcomes are not any better than those countries using less advanced options. The drug companies used to extravagantly wine and dine physicians and their families. Thankfully that has been curtailed. These are the costs hidden in our drug prices that people don't realize. My parents live in Tucson, and when I visit, I travel I pick up a medication that is very expensive here for less than 1/20th of the cost there. It is hard to believe that some people have to choose to forego medical care because they cannot afford it. When I worked at the University of Michigan, patients had to go through many processes when being considered for transplant. One of those processes was meeting with the finance department. They assessed what benefits that patient had, what would and would not be covered and whether the patient had the financial means to cover their portion of the expenses. It was not unusual for a patient to be denied being listed for organ transplant solely on the basis that they did not have the ability to pay. So in this great country of ours, people have to die because they do not have the resources to make different choices. Unbelievable!! Sorry for the rant, but it really is a sad statement when we have had previous administrations go on and on that we cannot afford to offer insurance to everyone, yet we are spending 11 billion dollars a month ( I think that figure is accurate) in Iraq. I think this administration will finally get something passed because we literally cannot afford to ignore it any longer. While they are at it, I hope they tackle tort reform.
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