(Snippet from the frontline)
The tortuous healthcare highway
Horror stories in healthcare persist: Loss of medical coverage during treatment for cancer; denial of a surgical procedure after a mass is found on a mammogram; exorbitant cost of a pill that might cure your potentially fatal illness.
Statistics are worsening: Life Expectancy in the US for the past two years is on a downward trend; our healthcare ranking is just slightly better than third world countries like Cuba; and medical costs are double other nations.
The propaganda machines of Big Pharma tell us generic drugs from outside the US are dangerous; too-big-to-fail insurance companies claim healthcare in other countries is horrific; and mega-hospital lobbyists insist technology and computerized records are a panacea for substandard patient care.
Legislators are bought, doctors are a commodity, and salaries and bonuses for hospital administrators, pharmaceutical executives, and insurance company CEOs are soaring.
Americans are forced to stay on this tortuous highway despite evidence it is getting worse.
Healthcare is moving from the fast to the slow lane driven by profiteering agendas.
Time to find the offramp.
Gene Uzawa Dorio, M.D.
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