Rising Healthcare costs F'in Though Provoking: ****

I thought about editing my previous post to avoid redundancy but I thought this topic deserved a post all to itself as it is a serious post (4 stars) see upper right and a new blog format. From now on I'll also label and rate all my posts so you guys know what kind it is like all the cool forum sites.

Eric mentioned a good point on rising health care costs, but I think something that contributes to that is rarely mentioned. That I think we as a whole (200 million) people, we are getting sick less on average. I'm sure there are national statistics on how many times americans get sick on average. Assuming that we are one of the healthiest countries, then it's basic law of supply and demand. Take for example, I was complaining about the price of anti-bacterial medicine "flagyl" which I had to take for my upset stomach. Prices of flagyl here in 500mg strenghths averages arounbd 15 dollars per 30. After comparing to a common online drug site, the average price for the same branded pills goes for around 120 dollars per 30. That's a 10X difference in price. Assuming part of the difference lies in cost of marketing and profit margin, I think part of the price difference is that here, the doctor told me that he sees 3-4 patients a day with similar baterial infections of the digestive system. That is an alarming rate of patients, attributed to one major problem: Lack of clean water.

With that in mind, when was the last time you had poor baterial infected water in the US? Unless you venture into the forest or go outside the city. That means there's no scale on the production of Flagyl and hence goes back to the original point. Since patients cannot be artificially created, in order to sustain and continue stocking Flagyl, manufacturers have into inflate the prices in order to compensate for the lesser volume.

Moreover, as more treatments are transferred to over the counter and made more readily available, common problems, categorized as common colds, flus are treated more availability "under the radar". Hence if someone has to go to the doctor it would be for more serious or specific conditions untreatable otherwise. Those are the kinds of diseases or conditions that would probably cost more money, requiring more hospital stay and specialized care, and hence on average healthcare cost statistics would also be much higher.

Conclusion: Not all the signs of rising healthcare costs are attributed to fraud, mismanagment and rising standard of living. It may be in a way we are also getting healthier.