Health Care in America: A Price to High
Alan E. Moses
November 16, 2006
This is an issue that may again gain steam as it was the central issue between President Bush and the Big Three automakers in Washington on November 14th 2006. The complaint was that the cost of health care is costing these automakers 12 billion this year. This is more than they spend on steel each year (764 million) to build their product. Of course millions of Americans have lived with this often ignored issue for years. Now that corporate America is complaining there might be some movement to correct this costly yet required issue. Just don’t bet on it.
Senior citizens must choose between paying bills, eating or the medicines that have been prescribed to them. Many Americans go without health care altogether for lack of the insurance or the ability to pay. Despite not being mentioned, this today should be considered one of the most distressing issues for the vast majority of Americans. When you see just how much these costs just keep spiraling out of sight. We have a very serious problem here and it is only becoming worse as time goes on.
When you compare us to other western nations our life expectancy is less by 1 to 3 years. However, we spend anywhere from 40 to 120% more on our health care than those of Europe. This in itself leads to some unanswered questions. If I spend twice as much than I expect at least 30% better health care. Most of the rest of the industrialized world has some type of socialized medicine. As a group Europe has more doctors per 10,000 people than we do according to WHO (World Health Organization).
The word socialized brings shudders to those of the medical and pharmaceutical industry. We are made to believe that it is unsuccessful and of a lower quality than the system we have today. Doesn’t seem to matter that the numbers don’t match as it would appear you may live a little bit longer with the European style of system. Are we really so proud that we just refuse to admit that we are wrong?
There are also questions as to why there are so many Americans who take prescription medicines.
It seemed as though the last twenty years has had a major influx on the use of pharmaceuticals. And in most cases those who take one seem to require more and more. The medical community just keeps treating symptom upon symptom and seems to not be trying to eliminate the causes. One of the major causes for all of the need for prescribed medicines is to deal with the explosion of neurological and auto-immune disorders and diseases.
Why doesn’t our government look into these causes or ways to lower the costs? It is purely political and a sad state of what is going on due to greed and power. Former President Bush, despite his many years of government service once sat on the board at Eli Lilly. Mitch Daniel, former Director of Management and Budget for President George W. Bush also from Lilly, and
Sydney Taurel, CEO of Eli Lilly and member of the Homeland Security Council. This of course is just the tip of the iceberg as many others from the Pharmaceutical Industry are embedded in government.
Big Pharma spent more than 800 million from 1998 thru 2005 in federal lobbying and campaign contributions at state and federal levels. Add to this the lopsided way that more than one third of their resources are spent on marketing and promotion. As an example Pfizer spent 16.80 billion on marketing while only spending 7.68 on research. Sounds as if promotion is more important then research. I always thought it was the other way as are these not the people who are trying to find cures? Of course there is no profit in being healthy. So for the time being your health care and it the way the money is spent will stay as it has been. You don’t have any allies in Washington.
Senior citizens must choose between paying bills, eating or the medicines that have been prescribed to them. Many Americans go without health care altogether for lack of the insurance or the ability to pay. Despite not being mentioned, this today should be considered one of the most distressing issues for the vast majority of Americans. When you see just how much these costs just keep spiraling out of sight. We have a very serious problem here and it is only becoming worse as time goes on.
When you compare us to other western nations our life expectancy is less by 1 to 3 years. However, we spend anywhere from 40 to 120% more on our health care than those of Europe. This in itself leads to some unanswered questions. If I spend twice as much than I expect at least 30% better health care. Most of the rest of the industrialized world has some type of socialized medicine. As a group Europe has more doctors per 10,000 people than we do according to WHO (World Health Organization).
The word socialized brings shudders to those of the medical and pharmaceutical industry. We are made to believe that it is unsuccessful and of a lower quality than the system we have today. Doesn’t seem to matter that the numbers don’t match as it would appear you may live a little bit longer with the European style of system. Are we really so proud that we just refuse to admit that we are wrong?
There are also questions as to why there are so many Americans who take prescription medicines.
It seemed as though the last twenty years has had a major influx on the use of pharmaceuticals. And in most cases those who take one seem to require more and more. The medical community just keeps treating symptom upon symptom and seems to not be trying to eliminate the causes. One of the major causes for all of the need for prescribed medicines is to deal with the explosion of neurological and auto-immune disorders and diseases.
Why doesn’t our government look into these causes or ways to lower the costs? It is purely political and a sad state of what is going on due to greed and power. Former President Bush, despite his many years of government service once sat on the board at Eli Lilly. Mitch Daniel, former Director of Management and Budget for President George W. Bush also from Lilly, and
Sydney Taurel, CEO of Eli Lilly and member of the Homeland Security Council. This of course is just the tip of the iceberg as many others from the Pharmaceutical Industry are embedded in government.
Big Pharma spent more than 800 million from 1998 thru 2005 in federal lobbying and campaign contributions at state and federal levels. Add to this the lopsided way that more than one third of their resources are spent on marketing and promotion. As an example Pfizer spent 16.80 billion on marketing while only spending 7.68 on research. Sounds as if promotion is more important then research. I always thought it was the other way as are these not the people who are trying to find cures? Of course there is no profit in being healthy. So for the time being your health care and it the way the money is spent will stay as it has been. You don’t have any allies in Washington.
Print
Email
