Gabes,
It's sad, but that's all true. We picture doctors learning their profession in medical school, but in truth, they mostly learn anatomy, nomenclature, and diagnostic practices there. The most important part of their training, the treatments, (using drugs, of course), they learn after they are out of school, and they learn this from the drug company reps, virtually none of which are MDs, or pharmacists.
Gabes wrote:-the governments only have funds to support patients based on taxes collected from medication sales
Now that's even sadder, but I'll bet that if this country's recent health care reform bill survives long enough, financing will be shifted in that direction, (how else can the government afford it), and it's one more reason why the cost of health care can only increase. Health care in our country is totally out of hand - only the wealthy can afford it, and yet, unless I am completely overlooking it, the huge health care reform bill that was recently passed, contains absolutely nothing to realistically bring down the cost of health care - the cost will continue to climb, only it will climb faster now, because more people will seek more health care, (since more people will have insurance, and when you have insurance, you don't hesitate to use it, because you're paying for it anyway). Right? Our grandchildren will end up paying for our health care, and our grandchildren's great-grandchildren will be paying for our grandchildren's health care. Our government's social programs are nothing but huge Ponzi schemes. Ponzi schemes are illegal for anyone, except governments.
A little over 4 years ago, I had a surgical procedure similar to the one I had two months ago. It involved a resection of the colon, and required a colostomy. The most recent surgery required an ileostomy, (which is very similar to a colostomy, but it involves the small intestine, rather than the colon. The most recent hospitalization lasted 2 days longer than the one 4 years ago, (7 days, compared with 5 days, the first time). 4 years ago, the bill was around $30,000, (I don't recall the exact amount). The bill this time was $92,559. Can you believe that - I can't. How could it cost so much more in just 4 years, for basically the same surgery, and only two more days spent in the hospital?
And it's not the doctor's fees that are the problem - the doctors fees were quite reasonable, IMO. They were only a small percentage of the total bill. It's the hospital charges that are completely out of control - they are just plain exorbitant, and there are no provisions in the reform bill to prevent those charges from increasing even faster, in the future. Are there?
Tex