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Treat Medicines Like Netflix Treats Shows

nytimes.com

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Re: Treat Medicines Like Netflix Treats Shows

#3

Post by kurthr »

peteretep wrote: post #2

Line 2 of the article is: > Why can’t the United States? The answer is either “regulatory capture masquerading as capitalism” or “but that’d be socialism!” depending on how snarky you’re feeling.

I don't think most people have fully internalized the fact that insurance companies are fully invested in rising medical costs since their margins are regulated and their BoD are looking for rising profits. Their "everybody wins!" means everyone who pays for medical care loses.

They would rather drive lower cost independent doctors into a higher cost hospital systems as long as all of their competitors pay the same... and they do.

Re: Treat Medicines Like Netflix Treats Shows

#4

Post by keiferski »

Maybe I’m missing something, but discussions on the cost of medicine never seem to question whether using prescription drugs is the right choice to begin with.

IMO, it would be far preferable to treat pharmaceuticals as a last resort, focusing instead on preventative medicine and addressing the underlying social issues that cause the medicine to be prescribed in the first place. From the article:

Hep C kills more people in the United States than all other infectious diseases combined. Cases are soaring, largely caused by injection of heroin and opiates; it’s a blood-borne virus spread by sharing needles.

Surely the solution to this epidemic is to address the underlying drug problems first?

Edit: I’m not suggesting that the treatments be ignored or that people who already have the disease aren’t helped. But rather that if X disease has an increase in cases, the only solution shouldn’t be to treat it - it should also be to figure out why it’s increasing and then try to prevent it.

Re: Treat Medicines Like Netflix Treats Shows

#6

Post by b_tterc_p »

keiferski wrote: post #4

Maybe I’m missing something, but discussions on the cost of medicine never seem to question whether using prescription drugs is the right choice to begin with. IMO, it would be far preferable to treat pharmaceuticals as a last resort, focusing instead on preventative medicine and addressing the underlying social issues that cause the medicine to be prescribed in the first place. From the article: Hep C kills more peo…

Not that it’s particularly effective but we do have a “War on Drugs”.

The reality is that both are worth pursuing. Prevention may get better with something like improved access to clean needles. But people will still have Hep C and it’s not just nice to try and help them, it’s economical to do so.

Re: Treat Medicines Like Netflix Treats Shows

#7

Post by nonbel »

keiferski wrote: post #4

Maybe I’m missing something, but discussions on the cost of medicine never seem to question whether using prescription drugs is the right choice to begin with. IMO, it would be far preferable to treat pharmaceuticals as a last resort, focusing instead on preventative medicine and addressing the underlying social issues that cause the medicine to be prescribed in the first place. From the article: Hep C kills more peo…

You may be interested in this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19328202

Apparently the mortality rate from ICD-10 X44 (stuff like blood pressure medication, antibiotics, etc) causes has risen more than 5x over the last 20 years. It seems these deaths are getting grouped in with X42 (heroin, cocaine, etc) in all the reports we hear about.

http://apps.who.int/classifications/apps/icd/icd10online2004...

Re: Treat Medicines Like Netflix Treats Shows

#9

Post by dmitriid »

b_tterc_p wrote: post #6
keiferski wrote: post #4

Maybe I’m missing something, but discussions on the cost of medicine never seem to question whether using prescription drugs is the right choice to begin with. IMO, it would be far preferable to treat pharmaceuticals as a last resort, focusing instead on preventative medicine and addressing the underlying social issues that cause the medicine to be prescribed in the first place. From the article: Hep C kills more peo…

Not that it’s particularly effective but we do have a “War on Drugs”. The reality is that both are worth pursuing. Prevention may get better with something like improved access to clean needles. But people will still have Hep C and it’s not just nice to try and help them, it’s economical to do so.

> but we do have a “War on Drugs”.

Which is not more than a scam by now.

Wikipedia has a nice section on the efficacy of this war: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_drugs#Efficacy_of_the_U...

Re: Treat Medicines Like Netflix Treats Shows

#10

Post by lkbm »

keiferski wrote: post #4

Maybe I’m missing something, but discussions on the cost of medicine never seem to question whether using prescription drugs is the right choice to begin with. IMO, it would be far preferable to treat pharmaceuticals as a last resort, focusing instead on preventative medicine and addressing the underlying social issues that cause the medicine to be prescribed in the first place. From the article: Hep C kills more peo…

> Maybe I’m missing something, but discussions on the cost of medicine never seem to question whether using prescription drugs is the right choice to begin with.

Because it's pretty darn obvious that once you have Hep C, yes, prescription drugs are the right choice. No one's pumping Hep C drugs into people who don't have Hep C.

> Surely the solution to this epidemic is to address the underlying drug problems first?

I'd recommend addressing both problems at the same time. There's no reason we can only do one.

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