Health Care Reform thread

[Diomedes]

There are people out there who are willing to take a risk in order to help others.

Firemen, cops, pregnant women who volunteer for H1N1 testing, etc.

[Sgt PSN]

I see no reward in it.

I'd rather get the flu, thanks.

you're looking at it on an individual level (which is fine).  for you specifically the risk (dead baby, live parent) doesn't outweigh the potential reward (live baby, live parent).

however, there is a greater reward when prego chicks volunteer for the testing, even if the individual results don't have a positive outcome.  in other words, for every fetus that dies after momma takes the shot, crazy mad scientists can disect it and try and find out why the fetus died and what to do to make the shot safer for everyone including the unborn. 

looking at the big picture, success is always achieved through failure.  can't say i blame anyone for not wanting to risk it though. 

 

[PhillyPhreak54]

The gov't can't mandate Pharma work on everything.  Maybe offering tax breaks would help, but it's still just not profitable enough, and the 3rd world nations will still not want to pay.

And I think you misunderstand.  While the AIDS virus is being researched in academe, NO ONE is trying to make the next generation therapeutic.  I think there's a biotech out there claiming they have a potential vaccine, but....

Unfortunately or otherwise, the "good of the people" doesn't come into play.  And it's definitely life or death (and damn soon, I'll warrant).  A researcher (can't remember who) put MRSA with another bacteria strain on the same agar plate.  Within 2 days, the second strain was also methycillin resistant.  He was so terrified he just bleached the whole plate.  HIV is a retrovirus just like the common influenza virus.  DNA splicing is hardly an accurate process, and it isn't inconceivable the two could mix in a patient leading to an airborne HIV virus.  Fun stuff.

Bottom line:  developing drugs is expensive.  The gov't sure as hell isn't going to do it.  Just don't make it un-profitable and we will.  The people I interact with every day (i.e. not senior management) do this because it's cool to make drugs which help people, not to make a profit for Pharma.  But without the latter, we aren't allowed to do the former.

I know MRSA is some serious shtein. Back when I worked in the prisons, we were all on high alert for this. Several inmates contracted it and they were in pretty bad shape. That was 6 years ago, so I can only imagine how much worse it is now.

I think the government should be involved some how. Perhaps tax breaks like you said. Or maybe the can somehow strengthen the oversight as far as regulating things?

What would stop the government from hiring away Pharma's top people, researchers and biologists and whatnot, and producing their own studies and production?

[PhillyPhreak54]

I understand its a business, but where does the "good of the people" come into play?  How does the gov't allow this to happen?

This, more than anything, might be the question of our time.

Also, is this an actual adult conversation going on? I might cry. Or forget about it entirely.

Shocking, I know. Even though I sucked at biology and chemistry, I find this fascinating.

If the pharmaceutical companies develop a drug that cures cancer and they know it works, but they place an outrageous price tag on it - how can that be overlooked? How could the suits refuse to market it reasonably because they feel they wouldn't be making enough cash?

[Sgt PSN]

the problem with diseases like cancer and aids is that if you (a) find a cure, and (b) make it easily accessable and affordable, then (c) you have no more sick people to make money from. 

pharmaceutical companies only make money when people are sick.   they've pushed so much faulty propaganda out there with add, depression, etc, etc that people today basically think that if there isn't something wrong with them, then there must be something wrong with them.  i really think that (perhaps to a minor extent) that these companies are basically making normal, healthy people think that they've got this, that and the other thing so they can get everyone all hopped up on pills. 

any ad for a depression pill is like going to a fortune teller......they ask closed questions that apply to damn near everyone. 

do you have trouble sleeping?  are you eating too much/too little?  do you lack energy? 

those very well may be signs of depression, but they damn sure aren't the only symptoms.  depending on what day it is, i might answer yes to all 3.  i know for damn sure i'm not depressed.   

i'm just glad i'm not dumb enough to fall for most of this crap and spend half of my paycheck to try and feel better about myself.     

[MadMarchHare]

I'm not sure I buy that argument.  There are several diseases out there where Pharma has essentially maximized benefit.  Type II diabetes, for instance, is treated with Glucophage.  Hard to work better than that.

ADD isn't driven by Pharma, IMO.  That's driven by teachers burdened with 30-35 8 year olds in a 2nd grade class, just trying to maintain enough order in the classroom to get reasonable standardized test scores.  Depression, on the other hand......

And while there is an effort to maximize profits, IMO to much of an effort, you have to balance price so that the majority of people can afford it, or you don't make any money.  It's not like Pharma exists outside of market forces.

Plus, most Pharma companies have banded together and offer drugs free of charge to the poor.  This was, of course, to prevent Canadian importation, but has been more successful than gov't sponsored Canadian imports.

As to the gov't hiring people away.....salary comes to mind.  Plus the NIH isn't exactly efficient.

[Seabiscuit36]

I'm scared of trying new vaccines, mostly because of a "I Am Legend" scenerio, i want to be a zombie killer not a zombie

[MadMarchHare]

They were more vampire than zombie, no?  And utterly unwatchable to boot.  I hear the book was good, though.

[General_Failure]

The book is great, if you're a big fan of the 1950s.

[ATV]

A few days after Fox "News" places an ad in newspapers wrongly claiming other networks didn't cover the angry white people rally in DC, we now have footage of one of their Fair and Balanced producers rallying this crowd...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/19/fox-news-producer-caught_n_292529.html

[ice grillin you]

campbell brown took fox behind the woodshed on thursday night over their idiotic lie

[ATV]

Dick Armey, the founder of FreedomWorks which is the outfit that has organized and funded all of the angry white people rallies, hates government health insurance so much that he's fighting to keep his own...

http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/not-ready-yet-bill-moyers-exposes-dic

[PhillyGirl]

campbell brown took fox behind the woodshed on thursday night over their idiotic lie

link?

[ATV]

George W Bush's speechwriter says that Obama is Boorish...

http://crooksandliars.com/media/play/wmv/9993/31416

[Diomedes]

you sure he didn't say moorish?