Reddit mentions of An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back

Is your response rooted in the belief that private health insurance is the sole reason for high cost of care? If so, please join me in reading An American Sickness. I'm reading it now and I'm learning that private health insurance doesn't nearly hold all the blame and it seems Bernie and others have been using them as some sort of scapegoat.

The reason behind high costs of healthcare falls on hospitals profiting, doctors incentivized to recommend expensive care, and regulations behind drug research that drive up those costs.

Edit: Insurance is also a factor. But it's a small part of the whole equation.

I thought of similar ideas. Then I got recommended this youtube channel (see about 4:55 in the linked video) where a doctor who is a Vice Chair for Health Policy and Outcomes Research and writes for the New York Times talked about how the "state lines" thing is more of a myth. He's generally quite balanced when it comes to either side's ideas for healthcare reform (each has its own tradeoffs). https://youtu.be/6tlMALdsZ28?t=4m55s

Unfortunately, insurance companies already can sell across state lines. It just doesn't work out very well. With no regulatory boundaries, insurance sets up shop in the state with the fewest regulations and sells nationally with no real competition that would make things less crap (this happened with the credit card industry).

Networks are also setup locally due to time/money of making new ones far away, so having insurance in a different state is basically useless (which may happen to me if I stop being unemployed by getting a job in another state soon). [A couple of states tried to do this. NOT A SINGLE out of state insurer took their offer] (https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/01/upshot/the-problem-with-gop-plans-to-sell-health-insurance-across-state-lines.html?_r=0).

Regarding rawrbunny, a large part of the problems seen in states like Texas (where I grew up) are caused by not accepting the medicaid expansion. By having Republicans reject the funding, they can then create their proof that Obamacare is more crap than it is (thanks Lieberman, for not letting us get a public option in exchange for your last crucial vote).

A side note - there's also a weird system in the US that ties healthcare to employment (not self-employment though), since healthcare benefits aren't taxed. It encourages rates to go up because no one is really paying for them. [For more info, check out Planet Money's podcast on it here. The section starts about 9 minutes in. It's fascinating stuff.] (http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2016/10/26/499490275/episode-387-the-no-brainer-economic-platform)

If you want to read more on how things got so bad, I'd highly recommend [An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business.] (https://www.amazon.com/American-Sickness-Healthcare-Became-Business/dp/1594206759/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1496388629&sr=1-1&keywords=an+american+sickness) It's also SUPER interesting, and even includes ways for people to save money through resources that try and make things more transparent.

As you may notice, I've been doing a decent amount of reading/research since the healthcare debate started up again. That, and the price of a fucking 15-minute CT scan (with insurance) varied MORE THAN $700 depending on which place I got it from when I was sick a while back. A good wake up call.

Actually, I am pretty sure what they spend the majority of their profits on is lobbying and not their executives and R&D. They also spend a good deal of money courting physicians to promote their medications.


(http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/33010-how-much-of-big-pharma-s-massive-profits-are-used-to-influence-politicians)

(https://www.publicintegrity.org/2016/09/18/20203/pharma-lobbying-held-deep-influence-over-opioid-policies)

Furthermore, most of the ground level R&D that is done in America regarding new drugs is from the National Institute of Health. Then pharma companies pick it up and do further research on it. And its not actual R&D to get the same drug approved with a new coating on it just to keep a patent stranglehold on the drug. This practice doesn't save lives or help patients, it keeps them from getting affordable generics.


Read a book called An American Sickness by Elizabeth Rosenthal. It is truly excellent at explaining how our healthcare system is failing for the general population and touches on many aspects, not just pharmaceutical. Basically, it is the counterargument to your hypothesis about increasing drug prices. (https://www.amazon.com/American-Sickness-Healthcare-Became-Business/dp/1594206759)

edit: had to go to grammar school

>Half the time, they just take two existing drugs and combine em.

You (every American really) should read "An American Sickness" by Elisabeth Rosenthal. She talks about this exact practice that pharmaceutical companies engage in. Taking an old generic med that works well, combining it or making it extend release, and skyrocketing the price up 300% or more. It's a sickening practice and if I had no moral compass and wanted to make bank, I'd jump at the opportunity too. Such a lucrative industry, pharmaceuticals.

She also dedicates chapters on critiquing insurance companies, "non-profit" hospitals (lol), physicians, and biomedical manufacturing companies.

You're overestimating how terrible Single Payer will be for physicians financially. Explaining why will take a lot of background info, but suffice it to say that the $$$ for how expensive healthcare currently is goes to hospitals and insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies. The average doctor won't be affected as much as you might think.

For more info on what I mean, there's a great book you should read:
An American Sickness by Elisabeth Rosenthal. She's a Harvard-educated MD who is currently the editor-in-chief of Kaiser Health News and her book is, in my opinion, the best (and most unbiased) around for understanding the state of the US healthcare system.

An American Sickness:
https://www.amazon.com/American-Sickness-Healthcare-Became-Business/dp/1594206759

Probably the biggest eye-opener I've ever read.

Thank you for this. You should also check out "An American Sickness" by Elisabeth Rosenthal. https://www.amazon.com/American-Sickness-Healthcare-Became-Business/dp/1594206759 I've been looking for some new stuff to read because it's so hard to get any non partisan information on the subject.

Saw this in the airport the other day and picked it up...Fairly quick read and relevant to this thread. I've been raked over the coals with two kids in three years and was getting tired of not understanding what the hell is going on in healthcare.

An American Sickness

https://www.amazon.com/Principles-Biomedical-Ethics-Beauchamp/dp/0199924589

https://www.amazon.com/American-Sickness-Healthcare-Became-Business/dp/1594206759/ref=sr_1_1?crid=12GOKZ3DTRX3W&keywords=an+american+sickness+by+elisabeth+rosenthal&qid=1550980133&s=books&sprefix=an+american+sic%2Cstripbooks%2C151&sr=1-1