No more

Blog War. Eh, it's pointless. Instead I am going to report on the presidents address of health care. He is right, there is a problem with health care, and the problem is rooted in government.

In an article titled The Price of Progress: The Real Reason for Healthcare Cost Increases Daniel Mead Smith argues

New technology and new treatments are available, new cures are being found, new drugs are being developed - and the resulting improvements raise health care costs.

Well there is a point to this. The new technology is more expensive, but the patents on this technology is what keeps it expensive.

The cost of prescription drugs has come under heavy fire in recent years, particularly from some members of Congress and our state legislature, and some advocacy groups. Much of this criticism apparently has been fueled by the lack of a Medicare prescription drug benefit and by the perception that drug companies were charging high prices for medicine that often cost only pennies to manufacture.

Hey, you can't trust big pharma. They are protected by patents. Luckily these patents expire, but that happens over the course of many years. You can't blame them for wanting to make a huge profit after having spent millions on development and testing.I must say I don't like "standard" medicine, I think others refer to it as conventional medicine. Most of the drugs that are developed are developed from natural medicinal sources, and then recreated in a lab. Many Doctors prefer alternative medicine for themselves. Why not for everyone else?

I think the high amount of disease these days is due to poor diet, exercise, lack of essential vitamins and minerals (which some argue the RDV's are in most cases too low), and other things. Being a human, I know the difference between eating right and eating not so great. When I eat crappy I tend to feel sluggish, I get sick easily, and I do tend to loose muscle mass. I go through periods of eating good and eating bad. When I eat healthy I feel great. High amounts of vegetables, nuts, fruits, and grains keep you well nourished. I don't eat meat, I don't think it provides anything that non-meat sources can't.

The idea of the necessity of animal protein is a myth. You don't need it, it sits in your stomach and rots, your body has to break down muscle (when you hit around 40) in order to produce the enzymes needed to break down meat, and it doesn't contain enough potassium to preserve muscle. I read that in a body builder magazine of all places. That isn't vegetarian propaganda.

Anyway back to the original topic.

Anyway from my research:

"Health care is expensive. We should find out why HEALTH CARE, NOT INSURANCE, is so expensive."

Many doctors have brought down their prices by not using third party payers. This leaves more freedom amongst the doctor and patient.

"Maybe it’s because of the insurance company in the first place?"
Again many doctors are dropping insurance companies and this is bringing down the cost of their services.

"The lack of apprenticeships in the medical field?"
Lawyers lobbied the government in Texas to rid the world of the evil plague of apprenticeships in the legal field because it brought prices down too low. These poor lawyers couldn’t afford multiple houses anymore, and yachts, and whatever. The government came to their rescue.

Perhaps this could be a good lesson. That schooling that costs several thousand dollars and takes 8 years might be another reason health care is so expensive. The poor can’t afford to go to medical school, so you can see why apprenticeships would benefit this field.

"Patents on new technology?"
It is pretty obvious that when one company controls the price of one product, the price of that product is going to be artificially high.

"Patents on drugs?"
Same as above.

"Crappy diets and habits?"
Maybe this disease era is related to the fact that the majority of people are obese in the united states. See Michael Moore.

"Ignorance of alternative medicine which many doctors use themselves?"
Many docs use alternative therapies themselves, and most "conventional medicine" comes from natural sources.

"The fact that we barely keep any of our money and inflation brings down the purchasing power of that money we get to keep?"