A whole new way to "cut" Costs

So it's come to this has it? Instead of cutting costs we are just going to give a whole new meaning to the word "cut". We can't seem to get those mean old drug companies to lower their costs (I mean we asked them nicely and all they said was "haven't you seen all the great charity work we do?") so instead we are doing a different kind of cutting. Several insurance companies including the giant United healthcare are advising their patients to cut pills so they can stretch the doses and make their pills last longer (article attached). This is wrong on so many levels that I can hardly stand it. My mind is running wild with things to say (like what about the dose the doctor prescribed?) so let's just start with the most obvious question. Why are we not acting like customers to these drug companies and telling them that either they cut their costs or we aren't going to take their damn pills! We act as if we forgot how to be consumers. If something costs too much then you switch pills, demand a lower cost, use your buying power to force a lower price or something like that. (I know you can't always switch pills but in many cases you can) Instead we act as if we are just a scared bunch of puppies with no recourse whatsoever and we sheepishly cut our pills as if that will solve anything. Where are the pitchforks? Wheres the indignation? Where are the organized marches? Stand up people and demand a better cost. Don't demand it from your politician or your insurance company or your doctor or your mother........demand it from the drug company. They are the makers of the pills, they make them very cheaply (despite their claims of outrageous R&D costs), they set their prices to get the most they can from the insurance companies and they are the ones that can lower them. It's not that tough...ok, it is tough but only because we have forgotten who the real culprit is. In health care the blame is deflected every time you ask. You are correct if you are thinking the insurance companies should be getting these costs lowered but as you can see they are either not interested or incapable because they are making a fortune as well. Consumers are truly on their own in health care because the insurance company blames the drug company, the drug company blames the doctor, the doctor blames the hospital and the hospital blames the patient. So there you go it's back to you, the patient, and I say that you blame the proper entity and in this case the drug companies are that entity. Lets focus our indignation on them and quit cutting pills in our pantries.

Medicare Can't Control Costs Either?

A very large and very depressing study was just published in JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) that failed to show cost control with aggressive treatment of the sick and elderly. Basically, Medicare tried to show that costs would be lower and hospitalizations less if they were more aggressive and the results were.....well, horrible. Costs were higher and people were still just as sick. This is truly frustrating to hear and yet it comes as no surprise at all. When you take a bureaucratic and bloated system that is outrageously expensive on all levels and try to prove more of that same system can do better you might just find out that mom was right when she said "the definition of ignorance is doing the same thing twice and expecting a different outcome". Okay maybe that wasn't the exact quote and maybe it wasn't your mom that said it but you get the point. We have been going down this same path in the US for over 50 years now trying to modify and tweak and change the system for the better and nothing has worked. An abridged list would include medicare, medicaid, HMO's, PPO's, HSA's, TPA's, QA, IPA's, MSA's, and many more which I will spare you the effort of reading. All of these efforts have had one uniting factor and that is that in retrospect none of them did anything to control costs. I am almost tired of hearing myself say (and just be glad you don't have to live in my head too) that until you control costs, you won't solve any part of our current health care crisis. All of the pointy headed intellectuals who attempt to change health care always talk about patient responsibility and consumer oriented health care and fancy terms like that. That's great and I am sure it gets them hired to stand at a lectern and tell everyone their thoughts for curing the health care system but there is a slight problem. We are going bankrupt and spending nearly $2.5 trillion dollars a year on health care! Even people with health insurance are going bankrupt when they get a serious health issue like cancer!! I am putting more exclamation points with each sentence and people still aren't getting it!!! I don't know when we will learn the lesson of cost control but until we do all of these other efforts will fail. Let's quit dancing around that subject and then we will start to see some real benefit from our efforts.
Other than that, I don't really have an opinion!!