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Originally Posted by tapu
Your remark above and the anecdote in the article regarding medical care capture where we are with medicine today. And with who pays for medicine today, which of course leads into the thorny matters regarding medical insurance and coverage for all.
Basically, people want 21st century medicine at 1960s prices. But really there is just no way to pull the stops out for everyone's treatment. Talk about hard decisions. I think those decisions will be forced, and soon. But how will we decide who gets advanced treatment? And if medically you don't qualify for it, will we let you buy it?
As for the lifeboat thing, I'd stick to the 1000. Unless I was number 1001.
Good topic, ElijahRenee. Thank you. --the tapu
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I agree with most of what you are saying. And yes, we need to understand just how expensive medical care is. However, so much is inflated by public entity health care provider corporations that not only want to gain a profit on the services, but also for their stockholders. This is over and above what the actual costs are. Yes, a corporation has to cover all od its costs including wages and benefits for its employees, but CEO's of some of our healthcare providers in the US take home 5-7 million in salary plus bonuses of a couple of million. Above that, millions go into dividends to stockholders.
One very good reason to get heathcare under a single-payer, public structure. And the very core of why these corporations have many lobbyists working for them in Washington DC.
The other side to this has to do with technological advances that are really quite phenomenal. But, also are costly from the the idea of a bright scientist through clinical trials, actually building the machines (ie., scanners), training those who can run them up to clinics and hospitals being able to afford them.