Is medical care a good business? [View all]

[eridani]

http://bangordailynews.com/2011/10/20/health/is-medical-care-a-good-business/print/

Health care costs are at levels never before seen anywhere in the world and are increasing in an uncontrolled and unsustainable way. Despite our high per-person costs — double those of other developed countries — tens of thousands of Americans die every year from lack of timely access to health care.

The degree of interference with doctors’ and patients’ health care decisions that exists in America today would not be tolerated anywhere else in the world. “Death panels” do exist in America, but they are run not by government but by private corporations. Their purpose is to maximize profits.

Americans are unique in the world in thinking about health care as a business. In no other country is that notion so widely and unquestioningly accepted.


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As Melody Petersen has documented in her book “Our Daily Meds,” instead of embracing George Merck’s philosophy, pharmaceutical companies have become huge marketing machines. They now are focused far more on their profitability than on their healing mission. Producing medicine that cures diseases instead of just treating symptoms has become a bad business model. Once a disease is cured the customer disappears and profits decline.