Damn the Pharmaceutical Companies

This is the problem with the health industry in America. It shouldn't be an industry at all. Medical treatment and wellness shouldn't come down to what someone can afford. America's fighting this battle of health care and insurance coverage and it's become an ugly war. I think it is just wrong. I will pray for your father. I will pray for America.

has written 205 comments

Sorry to hear about your Dad. Hope you get to share many more Christmases with him.

john from has written 82 comments

Sorry to hear about your parents. You talk about the America Healthcare Industry, but I refuse to believe it is a valid industry. People worked all their life thinking they were paying into an insurance plan called SSI and Medicare, but they weren't. Basically, what we have here in the United States is a giant ponzi scheme. It worked as long as there were less users of the system, but now we are in a situation in where there are less workers paying into the system and so there is less to dole out for services. Compounded into this problem is the fact that it is not in the insurance company's best interest to pay out, anything they pay out comes out of their profit margins (which are huge). At least your parents are getting some benefit out of the system. I am paying into it right now, I have no faith that SSI or Medicare will exist when I retire. So basically, I am paying for a service that I will never use. How crazy is that?!

Gadget from has written 831 comments

Hello John, I am not sure who to angry at the United Auto Workers Union for allowing a contract that somehow stops paying on retired people.

Or the Pharmaceutical Companies, Doctors and Hospitals aided by congress to allow them to just keep sticking it to the consumer.

I believe Social Security, Medicare and Medicai will be there for me, they are serving my parents properly. It is the Union that somehow sold them out, but then again when a company wants 50 dollars per pill everyone stops paying.

Obama may be on the right track, he is going to have to hurt the Pharmaceutical Companies, Doctors, Hospitals and Insurance companies. I do not think he is noble enough to do it, but he wil take a small notch, until his money dries up.

The people of the USA have never ending avarice, everyone somehow is convinced a job, and being a Doctor is job deserves a lot of money. A Doctor should not get wealthy, only owners of business deserve this capacity, more or less everyone along the line votes themselve more money and the consumer pays.

Stop Whining! Our country wasn't built by complainers, but by savers( for just such rainy days), investors, and hard workers.

Nobody was complaining when someone else was picking up Americans' health tab. Don't like the unfree health market of the United States now that the bill has come due? Sorry, perhaps it is time to travel to another country with a free-market medical system.

Or join the unashamed investors in the U.S. health/pharma industry.

God Gives Us Free Will to Buy, to accept so-c-called "Free Lunches," and do as we please. We find salvation or "Damn" ourselves depending on our wise choices. Live by the sweat of your own brow, not the taxful yoke on the back of others.

Just remember the averaged American was damned to an average lifespan of 47 in 1900...Thanks to "damn pharmaceutical companies" we are almost reaching 80 on average, these days.

Andy -

I'm sorry to hear about your father. Human nature is the same all over the world. It's the systems and choices of our cultures that often impact us the most. Medical care has gone CRAZY in this country in the last few years. In the two articles that follow, you have (i) a family who wants to work and be productive, but is forced into poverty to keep their daughter from dying due to a decision from an insurance company, and (ii) an elderly couple suffering with dementia who are forced to get divorced in order to preserve any of their assets. This is not unusual. This could happen to almost anyone in the US, no matter their station in life.

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/08/the-view-from-your-sickbed-29.html


http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/30/opinion/30kristof.html?em

has written 71 comments

Andy, your mom says-It is not the union who sold me out it is the company who I worked for. Not only did they leave the city where I worked high and dry but they decided to file bankruptcy when the city became upset because the company I worked for had poluted the ground and river so bad it was affecting the water system in this city in the USA where everyone expects to have decent water. The city is now paying millions of dollars to clean this up. I am not absolutely positive but i think our president had a bill that congress OK'ed is paying some of this cost. The UAW took over our health plan and are doing the best they can for which I am very thankfull. Your dad and I do not blame God for any of this. We believe this passage of scripture with all of our hearts. Be carefull of nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be known to God. And the peace of God which passeth all understanding , shall keep your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ.Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are just,whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report if there be any virtue and if there be any praise think on these things. Phillipians 4:6, 7, and 8This is how we live our life and pray that everyone in our family does too.

tropicalguide from has written 112 comments

First of all, join Localyte.com, Locals in 165 countries, some who are just amateur native guides who escort and advise visitors for love of country, city, region. Ask your questions and you'll get intelligent responses and leads on qualifed local doctors not "I'm sorry about your Dad, etc." Recently assisted a good friend of mine to relocate to Panama via the Localytes, they sent lots of insider info with no strings attched... all locals or long term expats. Most travel websites regarding Medical Tourism are tour operations touting in conjuction with Institutions. http://www.localyte.com/

Also the country and regional user groups on Couch Surfing, a Hospex site, often Couch Surfing hosts will allow surfers to spend several days at their home, or at least meet up in their free time and escort your Dad to see Doctors, interpreting if need be....http://www.couchsurfing.org/

Always ask trusted locals and long term expats who have had experience with local doctors to recommend theirs to you, get second and third opinions.

If your Dad is a Veteran, there is a VA Hospital facility in Manila. Ask the old timer Vet Ex Pats there about local docs as well.

When one needs or requires help, ask for it. Seek and ye shall find.

Donald Lee, ExPat
San Salvador, El Salvador

Gadget from has written 831 comments

Vic the USA system is now Usury Based Health System.

However, this is wrong, the whole country is usury based pricing, and Europe is twice as bad as the USA.

There is justice in a fare days pay for a fare days work, the world now wants as much as they can be clever. It is the pride in being clever that has me concerned, the whole world prides themselves in making money cleverly, not by hard work.

The average person in the world, in 80 percent of the countries makes about 5-10 USA dollars per day, it does not take an economic genius to see the global capital or free enterprise system is going go correct itself.

The USA and Europe will go down and the lower countries will go up, I am all ready buying everything I can NON USA.

I do not own a Korean Car, of Indian, but this is the future,

Mom, it was the job of the UNION to make sure your pension was funded.

I am American, I buy a good value, I make good decisions, and I want the value for the buck. I am just saying, the Pharmaceutical companies are not giving value, they are being clever a the cost of human life.

But so is 90 percent of the USA people, they are getting too much for no work.

20 percent of the population is caught in the vice, the worked, they did their job, they went off and got shot in Vietnam, they did what was normal, but they now suffer.

My life is great, I am an incredibly rich man here in the Philippines, or 80 percent of the planet.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usury

Check out the highly controversial Laetrile or vitimin b17 found in the pits of apricots. It may be of assistance.

hoz from has written 62 comments

WOW Vic, you are a cold hearted snake. Savers eh? Who can save for a oncology bill? NO ONE. Longer life spans are not due solely to the pharma conglomerates,you give them too much credit. Ever consider modern plumbing?

I can only assume you are a yuppie/rightwingnut/capitalist who HAS health insurance footing your health bills (if you have any).

TheKeeper from has written 25 comments

Hey Andy,

I hope you are holding up well concerning the circumstances. My dad just went through prostate cancer and it has not spread - hope it doesn't.

It's time that everyone realizes that "America" is just one big corporation and unfortunately "we the people" are not the stockholders.

There is no difference between democrats and republicans - they exist to make us believe that we have a choice and that the US is a free country. They are both put in power by the same corporation that will charge a sick person $50 a pill when they are desperate. We live in a country where war is called "peace process" and the majority of citizens believe it because they would rather watch 109 channels of sports or American Idol versus doing a little research and digging out the truth.

The only thing I want to see in my lifetime is for this shit to stop. Unfortunately, the older I get, the more I believe it will take a visit from the green aliens or total annihilation to change things in the US Empire.

Best,

Frank