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Originally Posted by AVGWarhawk
It would seem we are associating Socialism with healthcare only in this election. Let the general public pay to take care of all. Sounds simple enough but....
I think America has looked at healthcare from the wrong end. Why is healthcare so expensive? How is it really determined how much an operation will be? Why does one pill cost $3.00 yet the drug companies can produce this one pill for pennies? I truly believe the healthcare system needs to be looked at in the cost for services/medicine prescribed. Why is there generic drugs that are half the price of name brand drugs that contain the exact same medicine? For example, Afrin nasal spray is about $8.00 for 5 oz. The Rite Aid brand is $3.50 for the exact same % of medicine in a larger oz bottle. For some reason, we have just accepted these outlandish costs for operation and medication and have chosen to just accept these costs. Personally, I believe heathcare needs a serious overhaul in this respect.
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The reasons for the cost difference between generic and brand name drugs are that the drug company that developed the brand name drug spent huge amounts on research and testing to develop the drug to begin with, took the risks of lawsuits because of unknown side effects, etc. Once the brand period expires, other drug companies are free to make the drug and the only costs they have are manufacturing, which in many cases is little or nothing.
I'm not saying this is entirely the difference in costs, but it does make up a large part of the difference when a drug is new. The name brand companies need to do a better job of reducing the prices after a drug is elligible to be released in generic form.
As for why health care is so costly in the US, you only need to look at one profession and that is lawyers. This country is so freakin' enamored with silly lawsuits that malpractice insurance costs are higher than the cost of providing medical service. Legislative bodies (primarily made up of lawyers) are so busy "protecting" people from themselves that they are inadvertantly screwing us all. As much as I hate it, the only way to get lawyers out of the medical system is to make it a government function and not allow malpractice suits against the government health care system. This would not serve the people well either, because then there would be no incentive to weed out the bad health care practitioners. How are we going to fix the system? Someone please come up with a solution that will work.