
Start of American healthcare insurance problems - gshakir
http://time.com/4837864/healthcare-history-beginning-obamacare-ahca/
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tcj_phx
There are some good points in this article, but it glosses over the
ineffectiveness of early 20th century medicine.

Insurance pays for medical treatments that are helpful, and pays for medical
treatments that make the patients' conditions worse. Doctors don't have to
care too much about the effectiveness of what they promote because they get
paid anyways.

The formation of the Medical Guild (1845 -> 1935) is at the root of the
world's healthcare problem. Modern doctors don't appreciate the corruption at
the foundation of the modern medical era.

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cmurf
Narrow examples of this:

People with colds (virus) going to the doctor and demand anti-biotics.
Ignorant patients who become consumers and find doctors willing to give
patients what they want, rather than only what they need. And we have anti-
biotic resistant bacteria as a result (in part) of this.

Another cause of resistance, patients who don't follow directions on
prescriptions, to consume the entire prescription. They start to feel better,
and stop taking them. The surviving bacteria is what enables future
resistance.

Virtual addiction to sleep drugs like Ambien, which the PDR explicitly says
should be limited prescription that comes with a sleep specialist referral, is
routinely renewed for years way beyond what is ethical, because consumers
demand it and will effectively punish a doctor who will not give them a
prescription.

We live in a "why should I change my lifestyle when I can just take a pill?"
society. There is no possible way to fix this with the system we have, where
the doctor incentive is to say yes, which means profit, and no means a lost
sale.

