Perhaps it's good to recognize the triumphs of American Medicine as well as its failures. It seems care for complex medical problems is outstanding in the US, but at extremely high cost. Care for everyday medical problems seems quite spotty and also too costly.
American (US) medicine operates as a highly regulated Cartel in which access to drugs and care is highly regulated and restricted. It would seem that any kind of single payer government run medicine in the US would likely just result in huge costs being transferred to the Federal balance sheet, unless, and only if, the power of the Cartel can be broken. And that would take some doing!
The pervasive control of medicine in the US starts with the seemingly innocuous but ridiculous warning "Check with your doctor before beginning any exercise program." and goes from there. My personal favorite:"ordering drugs from Canadian pharmacies can be dangerous, as the FDA has no control over Canadian drugs."
It seems to me that the answer to bringing down costs in the US lies in breaking the power of the Cartel. Prescribing pharmacists and nurses as in other countries would go a long way. Also patient oversight of medical billing is needed (coding needs to be spelled out in layman's terms for benefit of patients so that they can notify their insurance companies when coding is being up-ranked to extract a higher fee. (a common practice) We need many low cost retail clinics, and we are finally starting to see that. But the AMA is trying to control them via regulation as well, and with the help of the FDA.
I would dearly like to see the US give capitalism and free enterprise with competition a try. The results might be quite satisfactory.
American (US) medicine operates as a highly regulated Cartel in which access to drugs and care is highly regulated and restricted. It would seem that any kind of single payer government run medicine in the US would likely just result in huge costs being transferred to the Federal balance sheet, unless, and only if, the power of the Cartel can be broken. And that would take some doing!
The pervasive control of medicine in the US starts with the seemingly innocuous but ridiculous warning "Check with your doctor before beginning any exercise program." and goes from there. My personal favorite:"ordering drugs from Canadian pharmacies can be dangerous, as the FDA has no control over Canadian drugs."
It seems to me that the answer to bringing down costs in the US lies in breaking the power of the Cartel. Prescribing pharmacists and nurses as in other countries would go a long way. Also patient oversight of medical billing is needed (coding needs to be spelled out in layman's terms for benefit of patients so that they can notify their insurance companies when coding is being up-ranked to extract a higher fee. (a common practice) We need many low cost retail clinics, and we are finally starting to see that. But the AMA is trying to control them via regulation as well, and with the help of the FDA.
I would dearly like to see the US give capitalism and free enterprise with competition a try. The results might be quite satisfactory.
