What's more, drug companies hold the patent for their drugs for the first 10-12 years of availability during which they make much more than their R&D money back. Particularly on medications for chronic conditions such as arthritis and hypertension. Yet, you don't see their prices going down once they've recouped their R&D money. Therefore, I don't really understand the comparison with France. Are we supposed to begrudge them for offering fair prices for their medications?
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I will agree with you about government influence on the declining quality of health care in that when Medicare instituted the practice of using Diagnosis-Related Groups (I think it's called) in the early '80s to standardize care and discharge planning for medical conditions requiring hospitalization or long-term care, insurance companies immediately saw the cost-saving benefits and today nearly all, if not all, insurance companies control the parameters of our healthcare in the same way.
That said, leaving millions of people uninsured and needlessly dying or suffering lifetime disability is not a reasonable alternative. These things don't happen in a bubble. You will pay and your healthcare is going to be affected one way or another. Why not just put the boogeyman on the table and accept that healthcare is not like cars or computers, everyone has a right to health and we all benefit from a society that has the ability to practice preventive healthcare and early detection of disease.
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Most people go through life dreading they'll have a traumatic experience. Freaks were born with their trauma. They've already passed their test in life. They're aristocrats. - Diane Arbus
PESSIMISM, n. A philosophy forced upon the convictions of the observer by the disheartening prevalence of the optimist with his scarecrow hope and his unsightly smile. - Ambrose Bierce
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