Needless Expenses Suffering and Death by Sick Americans

Effective Cures Can be Cheap

ASH released the following statistics at their newsletter feed;  I was shocked.

l.  Bankruptcies from medical bills.  About 50% of bankruptcies in the USA are from medical bills.  350t Americans went bankrupt due to medical bills.  In the face of unemployment, US financial crisis, this is difficult for many Americans.  What bankruptcies despite health insurance?  That is what the newsletter, the ASH newsletter said.

2.  Leading causes of deaths: (as of 2007, US National Health Statistics)

     Heart Disease       -  652t

     Cancer                  -  553t

     Stroke                   -  153t

     All Accidents       -  112t

     Diabetes               -  73t

This does not include iatrogenesis, death caused by wrong diagnosis, treatment or medication which could total 800t in a year.  Over a ten year period, the statistics is close to 7 million.

3.  Medical expenditures.

     Americans spend annually about  $2.3 trillion on their medical bills:  hospitalization procedures, diagnosis and medication.

4.  2002 Revenues of Pharmas

         Merck            -  $47.7 Billion

        Pfizer              -   32.3

        GSK               -    29.5

       Bayer               -   27.1

       Bristol Myers   -   2l,7

  The non pharmas were:

       Cardinal health      - 47.9 billion

      United Health         - 23.4

The wall street and other investment bankers have identified as a growing industry, will generate more jobs and profits than any other industry during these difficult times.

What do you think of these figures.?

Is it not anomalous that there is lot of expenses, and yet a lot of people still die from lifestyle diseases?  Has the US health care system fulfilled its mission despite the enormous resources spent? Isnt there some kind of inhumanity here?  One industry profiting on the death of millions of people

Would there be lesser expenses if everybody worked hard to find the root causes of lifestyle diseases, and prevented them instead (rather than cure, as what Dr. R. Willix is advocating)

Isnt it that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure?

Isnt it anomalous that pharmas rake in billions, and yet hundreds of thousands of Americans, despite the health insurance are bankrupted by medical bills?

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