U.S. Dead Last in Healthcare ranking

[daflyboys]

Re: U.S. Dead Last in Healthcare ranking

This thread has lasted a pretty long time, Good Conversation.

....and I actually agree with you. Make something free and watch the manipulators and spongers come out of the woodwork. You others don't think so? Ok, if you own an establishment, strongly advertise that your product will be free for an extended period of time.

[ESPNdeportes]

Re: U.S. Dead Last in Healthcare ranking

Why should money out of my pocket contribute to the health care of others?

Money out of your pocket has been paying for others health care since you got your first job, lol. I do hope you realize that.

[USF11]

Re: U.S. Dead Last in Healthcare ranking

Money out of your pocket has been paying for others health care since you got your first job, lol

I should of rephrased that to say, Why should "more" money come out of my pocket.

Seriously, Universal Health Care could only work in America if we first completely reworked our entire legal systems liability laws. Its great in theory, but completely impractical.

There is just so many hurdles.

[Hootiefish]

Re: U.S. Dead Last in Healthcare ranking

I think the two biggest problems that face our healthcare system (and need to be changed immediately) are as follows:

1) Pharmaceutical companies have our country over a barrel with the the high costs of drugs. My wife works for our local health department, so I know how much drugs cost, and how much they really cost.

2) Insurance companies should never, and I mean never, make medical decisions. Ever. Whether or not an insurance company believes a treatment or procedure is experimental or unnecessary should not affect their coverage. We pay the money for insurance coverage, so pay the ******* bill! It sickens me to hear stories of how people died needlessly because some pencil-pusher vetoed a procedure that a doctor recommended on the grounds that it was deemed "experimental."

[daflyboys]

Re: U.S. Dead Last in Healthcare ranking

I think the two biggest problems that face our healthcare system (and need to be changed immediately) are as follows:

1) Pharmaceutical companies have our country over a barrel with the the high costs of drugs. My wife works for our local health department, so I know how much drugs cost, and how much they really cost.

I don't want to defend the drug companies, but I have heard that it is about $1 mil in start up costs per drug for the pharm company b/c of FDA rules and regulations.

[Cebby]

Re: U.S. Dead Last in Healthcare ranking

1) Pharmaceutical companies have our country over a barrel with the the high costs of drugs. My wife works for our local health department, so I know how much drugs cost, and how much they really cost.

Again, drug costs have nothing to do with cost of production. Nothing in the world sells close to the cost of production.

Pfizer for example, spends $7.5 BILLION a year in research and development.

You take away profits and you take away R&D. You take away R&D, and you end up with no new drugs.

[born_bad]

Re: U.S. Dead Last in Healthcare ranking

Again, drug costs have nothing to do with cost of production. Nothing in the world sells close to the cost of production.

Pfizer for example, spends $7.5 BILLION a year in research and development.

You take away profits and you take away R&D. You take away R&D, and you end up with no new drugs.

The bigger cost for these companies is the marketing. Watch a football game and tell me how many commercials you see for drugs. That's the biggest cost and they're willing to spend it because it's all about profit.

Explain to me why drugs are so cheap in other countries... I suspect your answer will be "they're not as good," which simply isn't true.

[USF11]

Re: U.S. Dead Last in Healthcare ranking

The bigger cost for these companies is the marketing. Watch a football game and tell me how many commercials you see for drugs. That's the biggest cost and they're willing to spend it because it's all about profit.

Explain to me why drugs are so cheap in other countries... I suspect your answer will be "they're not as good," which simply isn't true.

I am gonna go with the relative cost of living in other countries has something to do with it.

[Cebby]

Re: U.S. Dead Last in Healthcare ranking

Explain to me why drugs are so cheap in other countries... I suspect your answer will be "they're not as good," which simply isn't true.

Because those countries didn't spend any money on R&D. They simply perform a chemical analysis on the drug, then reproduce it.

Think of it in music terms.

US music companies sell CDs for say, $10. Going into that is the cost of studio time, equipment, producing, and most importantly, physically playing the music.

Now, I can burn a CD of that same music and sell it for $3. Is it an inferior product? No. But the fact is, I can sell it for cheaper because I had no costs of making the drugs.

Go look at the products those Indian and other drugs companies have actually created. It's a list that reads:

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That's what you'll get if you take away the big pharm companies.

[Rocky]

Re: U.S. Dead Last in Healthcare ranking

Because those countries didn't spend any money on R&D. They simply perform a chemical analysis on the drug, then reproduce it.

Think of it in music terms.

US music companies sell CDs for say, $10. Going into that is the cost of studio time, equipment, producing, and most importantly, physically playing the music.

Now, I can burn a CD of that same music and sell it for $3. Is it an inferior product? No. But the fact is, I can sell it for cheaper because I had no costs of making the drugs.

Go look at the products those Indian and other drugs companies have actually created. It's a list that reads:

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

That's what you'll get if you take away the big pharm companies.

Actually, some of what you say is true. But the bottom line is that they are a big money business too and will charge what they can get away with....same with any big business in America (your record company analogy was spot on). Make no mistake, they also spend a boatload of money on advertising because they want to make money to get rich.

The question is do you want a company equivalent to the sleaze known as the record industry dealing with your health?

[jmood88]

Re: U.S. Dead Last in Healthcare ranking

The best Doctors will go where they can make the most money period.

It seems like a lot of industrialized countries have universal healthcare, if they wouldn't practice here where would they go?

[jmood88]

Re: U.S. Dead Last in Healthcare ranking

They can't afford to pay the teachers as much as private school systems, thus they get crappy teachers.

Which is due to the system of getting money for schools, not simply because it's a public school.

[ballerzinc]

Re: U.S. Dead Last in Healthcare ranking

Even if you don't agree for universal healthcare for everyone, can we all agree at least for kids. And our public school system is becoming a tragedy in some inner cities. We can't have innocent kids suffer because their parents don't make enough money to get them to a private school. To take away funds for doing bad on standardized tests is so ridiculous.

[dkgojackets]

Re: U.S. Dead Last in Healthcare ranking

It's not the inner city school systems. It's the inner city kids.

I don't have exact numbers, but I'm sure a great majority of students go to public schools. You don't need to pay for private school to get an education.

[ballerzinc]

Re: U.S. Dead Last in Healthcare ranking

It's not the inner city school systems. It's the inner city kids.

I don't have exact numbers, but I'm sure a great majority of students go to public schools. You don't need to pay for private school to get an education.

I totally agree with getting a good education in a public school. But you can't make a generalization about inner city kids like that, it's just disrespectful. So you don't think the schools there are any of the problem and its just the kids.