top rated testosterone boosters<\/a> insulin and colchicine, the primary treatment for gout, has rendered medicines that once cost pennies many times more expensive.<\/p>\n\u201cThe increases are stunning, and it\u2019s very injurious to patients,\u201d said Dr. Robert Morrow, a family practitioner in the Bronx. \u201cColchicine is a drug you could find in Egyptian mummies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even more nefarious are health care providers setting up patients who can\u2019t afford vital care with financing groups that charge interest rates of more than 20 percent.<\/p>\n
In dentists\u2019 and doctors\u2019 offices, hearing aid centers and pain clinics, American health care is forging a lucrative alliance with American finance. A growing number of health care professionals are urging patients to pay for treatment not covered by their insurance plans with credit cards and lines of credit that can be arranged quickly in the provider\u2019s office. The cards and loans, which were first marketed about a decade ago for cosmetic surgery and other elective procedures, are now proliferating among older Americans, who often face large out-of-pocket expenses for basic care that is not covered by Medicare or private insurance.<\/p>\n
The American Medical Association and the American Dental Association have no formal policy on the cards, but some practitioners refuse to use them, saying they threaten to exploit the traditional relationship between provider and patient. Doctors, dentists and others have a financial incentive to recommend the financing because it encourages patients to opt for procedures and products that they might otherwise forgo because they are not covered by insurance. It also ensures that providers are paid upfront \u2014 a fact that financial services companies promote in marketing material to providers.<\/p>\n
The Times said it found that many patients were sucked in by low or no-interest rates for a probationary period, but that the usurious rates then kicked in, sometimes exceeding 33 percent.<\/p>\n
And who are most likely to rely on that kind of financing? The poor, and the elderly living on fixed incomes. Pressure from state attorneys general have led to some changes, the Times reports, but the practice remains widespread. As for the cost of drugs? No reforms on the horizon, given the $250 million the pharmaceutical companies poured into lobbying last year alone, outspending the defense industry.<\/p>\n
All that lobbying has paid off:<\/p>\n
Lawmakers in Washington have forbidden Medicare, the largest government purchaser of health care, to negotiate drug prices. Unlike its counterparts in other countries, the United States Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, which evaluates treatments for coverage by federal programs, is not allowed to consider cost comparisons or cost-effectiveness in its recommendations. And importation of prescription medicines from abroad is illegal, even personal purchases from mail-order pharmacies.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s enough to make you sick.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Article: The U.S. Has the Best Health Care System in the World\u2014for Drug Companies by Scott Martelle in TruthDig. The Text: Just in case you weren\u2019t sure, yes, the United States\u2019 market approach to health care is a cash spigot\u2014and a bit of a fraud, given how much pharmaceutical firms have gamed the system. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[259],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/p>\n