Re. medication requiring a prescription:
Displaying poll results.28463 total votes.
Most Votes
- What's the highest dollar price will Bitcoin reach in 2024? Posted on February 28th, 2024 | 8476 votes
- Will ByteDance be forced to divest TikTok Posted on March 20th, 2024 | 7096 votes
Most Comments
- What's the highest dollar price will Bitcoin reach in 2024? Posted on March 20th, 2024 | 68 comments
- Will ByteDance be forced to divest TikTok Posted on March 20th, 2024 | 20 comments
Oh crap (Score:3, Funny)
A poll on pharmaceuticals. How long until the resident chiropractic looney tune shows up to grace us all with a nice heaping helping of nuclear grade crazy?
I use bed meds. I don't like using them, but it's better than having to drive while half asleep the next day. Going to give melatonin a shot, see if that works better.
Re: (Score:2)
*pops meds*
Man I feel like getting some Coke from McDonalds. TTYL
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
When I tried melatonin, it put me to sleep pretty well, but it also had a tendancy to wake me too early (about six hours later - *much* too little sleep for me!)
Re: (Score:2)
Assuming no sleep disorder, My Zeo [myzeo.com] is quite useful in working with poor quality of sleep.
Also, I found my chiropractor helped quite a bit with my sleep apnea. Not even joking, once that passageway opened up in my neck, my sleep got a lot better.
Re: (Score:2)
The GP is pretty clearly referring to to http://slashdot.org/~Dr.Bob,DC [slashdot.org]. A user who posts ludicrous claims which tie all sorts of medical issues to "subluxations" and claim chiropractors to be the cure.
Re: (Score:3)
http://slashdot.org/~Dr.Bob,DC [slashdot.org]
Re: (Score:3)
"VooDoo priestesses who dance naked with their chickens"
Is that your replacement for Viagra? 'Cause that's kind of weird.
Yeah, sure... (Score:3)
If you cut the "mumbo jumbo" out of Buddhist meditation, then what you get is basically an excercise in:
1. Relaxing. First the body, and then the mind.
2. Focusing, and staying focused.
I've been doing martial arts for about 20 years now, and I can tell you that it's surprisingly difficult to relax the body. I mean to really relax. I've been teaching martial arts (kung-fu, tai-chi) for about 15 years and I have never met anyone who can relax the body without alot of practice. It seems that only the mast
Transgender - 3 meds for the rest of my life (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm taking estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone blockers as part of hormone replacement therapy, along with anti-anxiety meds due to longstanding anxiety issues.
Going slightly off topic, one of the things that frustrated me during the debates about healthcare in the '08 election was how folks (I particularly remember McCain) would talk about the free market. If insurance companies won't insure you (due to preexisting conditions) the free market kinda fails for that consumer, doesn't it? Whether or not a business should be required to take a customer - which is what banning preexisting condition refusals would mean - is a different question, but don't pretend the 'free market' can automatically solve everything for everyone.
More broadly speaking, the healthcare debate following Obama's election once again frustrated me due to its language. Lets be honest: I and others like me who have preexisting, chronic conditions don't need insurance, to insure us against catastrophe, we need assurance, assurance we'll have help paying for medication and treatment we can't always afford. Because yeah, from an insurance company's point of view, I'm a shitty costumer. They know they're gonna have to pay out, $X, monthly, for the rest of my life. If I were running an insurance company, I sure wouldn't want trans clients (or clients with cancer, or diabetes, or any other chronic condition). Where's the money in that?
What I would have liked to see the debate be about instead was what type of medical care, as a society, do we want to provide to people who can't afford it? What do we do with them? Who - at the end of the day - pays for their treatment? That would at least be an honest discussion about values, instead of a veiled discussion about false rhetoric.
-Rebecca
Re: (Score:3)
Are you trolling, or are you actually trying to be transsexual?
If the former, please go away.
If the latter: I will be the first to admit that I don't really understand that concept. I just can't get my head completely wrapped around it. Based on my (perhaps willful) ignorance, I don't know that I want to pay for you to be transgendered. I'm not for it, and I'm not opposed to it: I frankly haven't put any thought into the concept until just now.
And I suspect a lot of others would feel the same way, righ
If your foot makes you stumble, cut it off (Score:3)
Based on my (perhaps willful) ignorance, I don't know that I want to pay for you to be transgendered.
Allow me to take a guess at the rationale: A patient has gender identity disorder. If allowing a person to put on the secondary sex characteristics of the opposite sex improves the person's welfare and thus the person's contribution to the economy, provide the change.
(Just as a girl who feels she's grossly inadequate because of her bustline might, indeed, have a real (and physically treatable!) psychological issue.
I guess in some cases, treatment of body dysmorphic disorder, body integrity identity disorder, etc. is cheaper and more effective to do with the scalpel than with medication. Brain won't accept or can't control a limb? Cut off the limb Ertl st [ertlreconstruction.com]
Re:Transgender - 3 meds for the rest of my life (Score:4)
I respect someone who can say "I haven't thought much about this, so I don't have a huge opinion." Let me try to lay out where I'm coming from.
First, being trans (or gender identity disorder, GID) is listed in the Diagnostics and Statistics Manual of Mental Disorders(DSM) [nih.gov], published by the American Psychiatric Association (APA). While I have some issues with GID's listing, I'd rather go with the APA's view of what should and shouldn't be treatable than the general public's. That's why we have doctors, and don't make medical decisions based on democratic vote.
But I know appealing to authority - "The doctors say it's real!" - isn't going to convince anyone it's real. So lets talk about what it means to be trans, and why it's different from " a girl who feels she's grossly inadequate because of her bustline."
I The largest difference, I would say, is the pervasiveness. Very often, trans people (myself included) were aware of their gender incongruity long before puberty. Being trans isn't a 'sex' thing, it's an identity thing. Similarly, I - and most trans people I know - would continue on hormones and presenting as I identify, even if I were the last person on earth. Because it's about me, not solely about how others perceive me.
Likewise, transitioning works. For myself and for lots of other people. Where ex-gay therapies and the like fail, time and time again, a caring and appropriate medical team to help with a transition (or, for gay folks, a caring and appropriate therapist to help with coming out and feeling accepted) have better results than 'fixing the problem.
As for worrying about people doing something just for kicks, that's an issue right now with certain painkillers. But rather than saying "No one can have opiates," we regulate them and have medical providers help determine what's medically necessary. But I really think that's an unrealistic worry. (As a side note, I think we should be moving toward a more informed consent [womenborntranssexual.com] model for helping trans people, but that's a different conversation.)
If you're interested in more information as to why this is an important issue, check out Injustice at Every Turn [thetaskforce.org], a report on trans Americans' experiences. Some 'fun' statistics: 90% of trans people have been harassed or discriminated against at a job, and 26% (including me!) have been fired because their trans. 28% have been harassed by a medical provider, and 19% have been refused service outright. And 41% have attempted suicide, versus 1.6% of the general population.
-Rebecca
Re:Transgender - 3 meds for the rest of my life (Score:4)
Cool.
Sorry for the late response, but I figure you'll read it eventually anyway.
I think having it listed in the DSM (I didn't know that it was) is a good step forward toward general acceptance, especially when it comes to the question of "who shall pay for the bill."
Your commentary, along with the numerous passivising retorts I got for my "just for kicks" comment, along with a bit of time to have actually given it some thought myself, tells me this: If we can pay to treat depression, we can pay to treat transgenders. It appears that both can be very serious problems if left untreated. (I could pick other examples to compare with, also, but that'd just be beleaguering the point.)
This, of course, leads to another discussion about healthcare in general, as we don't generally pay for either of these things as a public except in extreme cases of indigence, disability, or age.
Which I think is a shame. I don't begrudge the healthy people of the world for being healthy: I, for one, with my $9/month prescription for antidepressants, am also generally healthy and would be a contributing member. The healthy (myself included!) should support the unhealthy to help them become more healthy and, dare I say, happy[1]. Doing so will make them more productive, and everyone wins.
So, anyway: You've answered my mini-quandary, and I will be happy to help pay for your treatment if public health care ever becomes a real thing in the US.
Good luck, and thanks for the insight.
[1]: Which is really the whole point of this existence, anyway: Happiness, however it comes.
Re: (Score:3)
I was oversimplifying and I'm sorry I came across as a member of "that part" of the trans community. I know exactly what you mean, and you're right: I absolutely need medical intervention. My issue is that GID is listed as a mental - as opposed to physical - disorder. With your cleft palate example, it's not something you need therapy to get verified as a 'real' cleft palate patient.
It
Re: (Score:3)
Nearly 5 decades of psychiatric experience and research has almost the opposite view. Transsexualism cannot be "cured" by psychotherapy, and you cannot force a change in a person's gender identity. It is as futile as trying to turn gay people straight. The only known t
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Transgendered people aren't "in the wrong body" any more than a woman wanting breast implants has the "wrong" body. They have a psychological condition that makes them feel that way. It is, indeed, all in their head, and that's an important distinction. It means that one day we may be able to treat the root cause and let them be happy in their natural bodies. With physical disorders, that's not an option.
However, for now, the current state of medicine has no way of treating the root cause. They have an
Re: (Score:2)
Playing devil's advocate, there are studies [blogspot.com] showing trans people are physically and biologically different than their typically gendered peers. What if being trans stems from hormonal development in the womb? Or a gene misfire? Or neurological development? It's premature to say being trans is "all in their head" (by which I mean that it's a psychological
Re: (Score:3)
A gay (a great cook that used to be on téléquebec) that I respect on TV said that if there was a pill to switch from gay to hetero he would take it. And a lot's of gays I know (I work in a university after all) would do it too.
No free market with insurance (Score:3)
If insurance companies won't insure you (due to preexisting conditions) the free market kinda fails for that consumer, doesn't it?
There's no such thing as the free market once insurance companies get involved.
In a market where many end-users pay via insurance, the price is no longer based on what the user can afford, but on what the insurance company is willing to pay out. Indeed, it is very much in the interests of the insurance company for prices to be beyond the means of the end user, lest people might be tempted to do without insurance. Logically, the insurance company needs to make sure that its premiums more than cover its liab
Re: (Score:2)
Just ban the commercial insurers from refusing clients and set some minimal but necessary level of cover, leave the price and extras to the companies.
Re: (Score:2)
State health insurance is not needed, state control is sufficient.
Just ban the commercial insurers from refusing clients and set some minimal but necessary level of cover, leave the price and extras to the companies.
...which would almost certainly require huge subsidies from the state, because not being able to mitigate your risk by refusing to insure high-risk cases (or effectively refusing them by charging sky-high premiums) would be intolerable for insurance companies. As another poster has pointed out: taking small amounts of money from people that you know are going to need big payouts just isn't insurance. There would be a constant legislative battle to stop insurers finding end-runs around the requirement (e.g.
Re: (Score:3)
Insurers should only compete on price and extras, not by cherry picking their clients or offering too little cover.
Re:Transgender - 3 meds for the rest of my life (Score:4)
Ummm...yes? Your point being? ::Gasp:: I'm trans and interested in dating? That I use the Trillian_1138 moniker elsewhere on the web? That I don't have a particularly deep divide between my Internet and 'real' life?
Re: (Score:3)
When wanting breast implants or a nose job or tattoos or a nice car is listed in the Diagnostics and Statistics Manual of Mental Disorders [nih.gov], we can talk about equating being trans and wanting a nice car. Until then, I think the slope is neither particularly slippery nor particularly steep. My position is as follows:
Re: (Score:2)
My status as a trans woman seems to have split the discussion, and for that I apologize. I don't think the government owes me any help maintaining an Internet connection or a computer (beyond providing those things in public spaces like libraries). My point was that for people with chronic, preexisting conditions, the term "insurance" is something of a misnomer. As some pointed out during the healthcare debate, you can't buy insurance to fix a car you have already crashed. But we place fixing people on a mo
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I think he was making a costume-r vs. customer joke (the typo), inappropriate as it was.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
No, their attitude - as far as I can tell - is wanting to use their service and have them pay for medical expenses is less profitable than insuring healthy people who don't need treatment. In Illinois (where gender identity is a protected class) I have had no problem getting treatment paid for by my insurance when I was under my parents' plan, and have none now that I'm in the state high risk pool. So once insurance companies grudgingly accept me in their system, they acknowledge my concerns are medically v [nih.gov]
Re: (Score:2)
Transgender drugs are a choice.
Diabetes and cancer drugs are necessary.
Ok, migraine medicine, all pain relievers, allergy medication, and, oh, pretty much every psychiatric treatment on the market are a choice. Honestly, just about all drugs are choices. Very few of them are "take this or you will die". Chemo, antivirals, some antibiotics, antitoxins, heart medications, and insulin would be the big ones.
The point is, just because you could be alive, if not well, without the medications, should you have to be? If you have migraines or depression and there is a treatment tha
in my country (Score:2)
in my country, you dont need a prescription for prescription drugs (:
Re: (Score:2)
i doubt you'll move to india! we have bigger problems than prescription drugs!
Here they come... (Score:2)
Where are the Doritos?
Concerta (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Ray Peat has some choice words about how the pharmaceutical industry dropped their old anti-depressants when they lost patent protection, and campaigned to move everyone to the "new & improved" serotonin reuptake inhibitors:
Re: (Score:2)
Been there. Ritalin was great... I mean really really got me focused. OTOH, I'd never really had caffeine before and the first time I tried Red Bull the effect was indistinguishable. Then I tried an SSRI... forget what it was called... for social anxiety. It didn't really seem to help in a good way, I just stopped caring about things, and made it hard to sleep which made everything else worse. And then stopping taking them wasn't a whole lot of fun either. Thankfully I didn't have half the problems you had.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Without the pills, I'm basically at the level of focus where I routinely forget to remove things when I clean a table, or being unable t
Just 1 - wish it were none (Score:2)
I do have to take 1 pill each day for high blood pressure, though. I have an active lifestyle, it's just always something that's been high. I'm not obese, though I could stand to lose 10lbs around my gut (who couldn't?).
Cascade (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Carbamazepine (Score:2)
Primarily because it prevents seizures, but the mood stabilisation aspect of it is awesome. This is my second stretch on this particular drug. The last time was in my early 20s and I built a house before I came off the medication. This time around I hope I stay on long enough to organise the garage, find a new job, buy a few investment properties and clean up my wardrobe before I drop back into unmedicated dithering.
Posted AC, any Biologists here? (Score:2, Interesting)
A lot of people deserve the diseases they get from neglecting themselves... having that in mind healthy/active living didn't stop me from inhering a genetic disease. 3 very strong medicines that keep me alive but don't really do enough, just waiting for a cure which doesn't look anywhere on the horizon.
QUESTION FOR BIOLOGISTS: Is there any hope with the DIY community in general since I've seen it mentioned before here? Point being look at hwo Penicillin and some other drugs were invented, more or less one v
Re:Posted AC, any Biologists here? (Score:5, Interesting)
From what I've seen, the major cost in developing new treatments is in clinical trials. The R&D work is comparatively cheap. The major obstacles for a DIYer in developing a treatment are 1: producing and purifying enough of the substance to test. 2: demonstrating that the treatment is safe (phase 1 of a clinical trial) and 3: demonstrating that the treatment is effective (phase 2 of a clinical trial). As a DIYer, the typical clinical trials can be supplanted with trials in animal models (if available) until a major pharma company buys it up to fund the actual trials. The process can be expedited a little bit if you get what's known as "Orphan Drug Status" (i.e. nobody else is working on this illness since there's probably no money in it) which can grant you additional funding, and streamlines the FDA's approval process; but it's still not a guaranty of any sort.
Now, if a DIYer comes up with an effective treatment, and can produce it consistently at reasonable concentrations, then open-sources the formulation and production method, I'd still expect the FDA to step in to try and regulate it. Concerning your penicillin example, even though the molecule and production methods are well known, it's not something that the average joe can produce at home (not at therapeutic doses anyway), and it's still not something that can be sold over the counter. DIY biotech therapeutics is a good starting point, but it won't get to market without FDA approval, which, thanks to the cost of clinical trials, basically requires corporate sponsorship.
Ventolin... (Score:2)
Only if I absolutely have to (Score:2)
I don't even like taking over the counter medications.
I prefer to kill my liver the old-fashioned way -- with alcohol.
None of your damn business (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Type 1 Diabetic (Score:2)
So multiple times, every day, for the rest of my life. Right now I have exactly 1. A few years ago, I had two. If two or even five made it more manageable, I'd take that many. The impact of fast-acting insulin and the ensuring quality-of-life improvements it brings has made me much less cynical towards the pharmaceutical industry.
Also a good example of why"abstain" is stupid (Score:5, Insightful)
Prescription drugs are not a lifestyle choice, they aren't something you do for fun, or "abstain" from to be a good person or tough guy or something. They are there to deal with medical issues. If you don't need any, that's wonderful. However if you do there is no shame in it, nothing wrong, it is just that your body has a problem, one that science can help. Better that than having a problem which science cannot, of which there are still many.
Now that isn't to say that people don't abuse various drugs, of course, but that is completely separate from proper use. If you need a drug, then you should take it.
I've always found this attitude stupid, particularly since if you live to an old age, you almost certainly will be on some drugs regularly. As the body ages and has more troubles, drugs are often needed to help. If you are lucky, your conditions are ones that we have developed drugs to treat.
I've seen the other side of it, my grandma has Alzheimer's, and it is progressing pretty rapidly. I doubt she'll know who she is in a year. Unfortunately, there are no effective drug treatments for it, there is nothing that can be done except to watch her slowly lose her mind.
Were there a drug that could treat it, there would be no shame in taking it, and no pride in "abstaining".
Diabetes is an excellent example. Prior to insulin, people used to die from it. If you developed it, you had a death sentence. You could prolong your life a bit with some dietary changes, but you were going to die from it, and usually go blind first. Now, people can live full lives because of it (and some other medications).
If you don't need any drugs, by all means don't take any and be glad. However don't "abstain" if you do need them. The increases in length and quality of life we have are not coincidence, they are a result of medical science and drugs are a part of that.
Don't abstain from a medication that manages a condition any more than you'd abstain from a antibiotic that saves your life from an infection.
Surprised (Score:2)
Oxycontin (Score:2)
I had to take Oxycontin for 2 days once because of a knee surgery. I didn't feel any pain, but was a complete wreck and was either sleeping or hallucinating the whole time. I have no idea how oxy addicts function.
I just had surgery (Score:2)
I had surgery less than a week ago, so I have to take two or three types of pain-killers (three in an emergency) and anti-inflammatory pills, pills against nausea and sickness and I also take shots against blod-clots. All on prescription.
However, I am starting to suspect that my sickess is in hole or in part caused by the pain-killers themselves, so I am going to try to have them changed tomorrow.
I don't take any drugs normally.
Druggie generation (Score:3)
I understand that some people need drugs for medical conditions, but there is no way 77% of slashdot readers have such conditions.
This is BS. There must be one hell of a lot of people taking drugs they should not be on.
Re: (Score:3)
it doesn't help that if I get an itch on my elbow the doctor will prescribe me a lifetime regiment of antipsychotics
Are doctors in America really trying to help patients or are they in it to make a fast buck?
It's a serious question BTW, I'm not American and really don't know.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
I'd try THC for my problems, but unfortunately cannabis has a pretty nasty side effect called 'going to jail.'
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I'd try THC for my problems, but unfortunately cannabis has a pretty nasty side effect called 'going to jail.'
Where do you live that they'd send you to jail for a bit of weed (do the kids still call it that :)?
How do I get out? (Score:2)
Move to the Netherlands or Portugal, where interestingly this side effect does not exist.
How do you recommend that one qualify for resident status in the Netherlands or Portugal?
Re: (Score:2)
Not mentioned because there's no evidence that marijuana smoking has ever caused a case of throat cancer.
Please post a link to reliable, compelling research proving your point. Or stop mentioning it.
Re:medicinal marijuana (Score:5, Informative)
No, because you're talking pure nonsense. We don't believe random claims of medical fact just because there's no evidence against the random claims. To believe a claim, the claim must have at least some evidence, and if only a little then some evidence for an explanation of why there's so little. When there's none, we have a term for that: you're making it up.
There have been hundreds of millions of marijuana smokers in America alone for many decades. Throat cancer is usually easy to diagnose and rarely escapes attention, especially in the highly profit-motivated American medical industry. If there were any cases, there would be ample evidence of them.
You don't even have smoking pot as an excuse for the inane drivel you just posted. You should stop mentioning anything in public, at least until you have something worth hearing.
But at least you've demonstrated the extreme low quality of thinking that keeps marijuana criminalized. Congratulations! You're evidence, despite being a stranger to the concept.
Re: (Score:3)
Anything greater than 1 is plural. Anything greater than 100 million is hundreds of millions.
Americans have been smoking marijuana for over 200 years. And many of us have been smoking it for longer than 44 years.
But even that analysis isn't necessary. There have been 2 or 3 generations coming through America since 44 years ago.The 200M Americans alive in 1967 are different from the 300M alive now - turnover multiplies the amount. The total population of unique individuals since 1900 (when marijuana started
Re: (Score:2)
Why didn't you post a link referring to research that shows that there is no evidence that marijuana causes cancer?
Why bother? Anyone that has any knowledge will either know the answer or not listen if the answer were given.
Re: (Score:2)
I agree smoking anything is dumb, but there are other methods beyond smoking it. Using a vaporizer or eating it work well.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
It's the closest option to "I don't need prescription medication"
Re: (Score:2)
I took the first option, not full abstaining but just don't need them now. If in future necessary I would take them, no worries. So I'd say that accounts for "seldom" and yes I'm happy about it.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
So all you abstainers would rather die than take a potentially life-saving prescription drug?
There seems to be a growing movement that believes Rx drugs are an unnecessary vice foisted on the unwitting public by greedy pharmaceutical corporations. And while this isn't necessarily 100% false, there are many people who need these drugs to survive. Unfortunately, without insurance, even one Rx drug can often cost more than a monthly mortgage payment. Hopefully in the future a balance can be struck between, "I need this medicine because the television says I'm unhappy" and, "I'm going to die because I
Re: (Score:3)
It is interesting isn't it? My wife has a brain tumor and gets frequent epileptic seizures without taking two different drugs. Both are nasty. I make it a monthly habit over the last 5 years to ask her and the doctor if there isn't some other alternative, none, a reduction, something else. While I may need to accept this current regime may indeed the only option, it won't stop me questioning, always.
I think you are bang on with your first sentence... The number of doctors at the beginning of this ordeal
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
In the UK healthcare is free, and there is a
Re:Completely? (Score:5, Insightful)
You are very lucky your meds are so reasonably priced.Many drugs are a LOT more. And that says nothing about the general lack of universal medical care in the USA. Truly, I believe Americans must be the most uncaring, selfish people in the world to have such a rich society, and such a lack of services that are provided by the government in all other western states.
Why do Americans not think twice about military or prison expenses, but baulk at anything that actually helps people?
Re: (Score:2)
Truly, I believe Americans must be the most uncaring, selfish people in the world
Is that why they donate more to charity privately than any other country?
I mean, we can debate the problems of American exousaphobia all you like, but you're a fucking moron if you think Americans have a problem with giving money to help other people. That military spending? What do you think paid for the aircraft carrier group delivering food and medical supplies to southeast Asia after the tsunami in 2004? All those donations to help Haiti after the earthquake. What Americans don't generally like is t
Re: (Score:3)
Americans give more because there are so many of them, but per capita the donation amount is actually quite low.
I actually thought this was wrong so I did some research to back up my beliefs... but it turns out this is correct. As a percentage of Gross National Income, the US is 19th on the list, slightly ahead of Greece: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_charitable_countries [wikipedia.org] and lags the leaders by a factor of five. In terms of absolute dollars, the US is 1st on the list and leads the second place country by a factor of two.
Re: (Score:2)
Don't get me wrong, I like plenty of things about America, but the healthcare system sucks. Ours is far from perfect, but care is completely abstracted from the ability to pay which can only ever be described as a g
Re:Completely? (Score:5, Informative)
I got news for you buddy .. you pay for it one way or the other. I've been in the US medical system for 30 years, and have always been able to afford all my medications. I take 3 eye drops and 2 pills every day. It costs me $165 every month. I do this thing called a 'budget' to pay for them, and have never had any problems. My employer offers three health plans, I pick the one I want. You don't get any choice, and just have it taken directly out of your paycheck. Many in the US believe in freedom and choice and not having the government decide what's best for us, it's why we kicked you guys out over 200 years ago. The price to pay for that is personal responsibility, and some just aren't as good at it as others.
Then you can consider yourself lucky. Free health care paid from taxes isn't about making health care cheaper, it's about making it available to people who have rare and very expensive to treat condition which is painful, crippling or life-threatening. No amount of personal responsibility will help you if you're unlucky enough to get one of those.
Re:Completely? (Score:5, Interesting)
Here in The Netherlands all citizen and foreign workers are legally obliged to take out private health insurance.
A government supervisory annually sets the minimum benefits such a health insurance has to offer, the insurer can compete on price and further benefits, the insurer can not refuse you.
It's possible to pay for extra non-regulated packages like chiropractors or alternative medicine, it's up to the consumer.
Children are until they turn 18 covered by their parent(s) insurance,
I pay around US$150 per month what is typical for most people.
The Obama administration had a good look at this system and proposed parts of it but the Conservatives decried it as communism.
Your loss.
Re: (Score:2)
True as far as it goes, but the insane legal climate regarding medical care probably has more to do with the enormous amounts of testing than doctors and hospitals being greedy. Doctors and hospitals can and do get their asses sued off for not testing enough, even if the tests are ridiculous and wouldn't have helped the real problem anyways. Nobody gets sued for testing too much. If you want to see how bad it is, ask a doctor how much their malpractice insurance is and how much that price has changed over t
Re: (Score:3)
"My employer offers three health plans"
That right there is the problem with the US health system. Healthcare/insurance is tied to your job. If you don't have a job, well then you're in trouble (which is 10-15% of the American population right now). Yes there are some non-employment-dependant health insurance options out there but they are ridiculously expensive and let's face it, if you're unemployed, your chances of affording them are slim.
It doesn't work like that anywhere else. Whether it be anywhere on
Re: (Score:2)
There's a legitimate case for psychoactive meds being overprescribed, sometimes to tragic results, but most other drugs are at least trying to treat real problems based on real empirical evidence. Yes, there's marketing of the hot new thing that's supposed to be magically better, and yes the companies are greedy fucks who gouge the public, but that doesn't make the drugs inherently unnecessary.
The problem with psychoactives is there's (usually) no blood test, no rash, no scan, not even a clearly articulable
Re: (Score:3)
There seems to be a growing movement that believes Rx drugs are an unnecessary vice foisted on the unwitting public by greedy pharmaceutical corporations. And while this isn't necessarily 100% false, there are many people who need these drugs to survive. Unfortunately, without insurance, even one Rx drug can often cost more than a monthly mortgage payment. Hopefully in the future a balance can be struck between, "I need this medicine because the television says I'm unhappy" and, "I'm going to die because I can't afford this medicine."
People who believe that are idiots.
I have asthma. I tried to "just live with it", but that just meant I was miserable and out of breath most of the time. It probably would've also meant I wouldn't live to retirement. My doctor put me on Flovent and Singulair, and now - most of the time - I can function normally. While I have rare flareups (which aren't horrible anymore), most of the time I don't even notice my asthma.
Re: (Score:2)
Bullshit you loser troll.
What drugs are killing people? Care for specifics? There are plenty of drugs that would help people but are taken off the market because they do kill people. Think of the COX-2 inhibitors - tonnes of people with inflammatory conditions would probably take the risk but they're not given the choice.
Re:loser troll? (Score:2)
Acetaminophen kills, but you don't need a doctor to prescribe it. If you want specific listings of the many and divers toxic and lethal pharmaceutical products your doctor has for you, you should watch television, they have these short presentations known as advertisements...
Think of an herb called cannabis - tonnes of people with inflammatory conditions would probably take the risk but they're not given the choice.
Re: (Score:2)
As a regular pot smoker, let me tell you that is it not as side effect free as the proponent of the full unfretted legalization claim. But whenever I have nausea or unspecific pain, nothing beats it for the symptoms alleviation. And even if it is illegal where I live, consumption is not prosecuted...
Re: (Score:2)
So you get 15 years of quality life instead of a long, but painful and crippling life. As a sufferer of "suicide headaches" (clusters, chronic), I can tell you I would much rather prefer the former to the latter. When the pain hits, which is every day of my life, I am immobilized, disabled, unable to do anything useful. I feel like shit and I feel like I let those around me down, which I often do, no matter how hard I try to be good for them. There are cures, but they are illegal here in America, and the tr
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Get a white one for the pills you eat every day, no matter what.
Get a blue one for the pills you take when you're angry, and don't wish to be.
Get a red one for the pills you take when you want to be angry, and aren't.
And the ones that mother gives you, Don't do anything at all
Go ask Alice, When she's ten feet tall
Go Ask Alice (Score:2)
Do that a couple of times a week and you'll never need antidepressants.
I see yours, and raise you... (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I heard a case about an old lady who had to take about ten different pills per day - but it turned out that she couldn't remember all the pills, so she simply mixed them all into a big jar and took out ten at random every day. Problem solved... statistically, anyway.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm lucky, I take two tegretols a day. They come in strips of ten, five plus five. So if a strip has an even number remaining, I haven't taken my dose today. If I have to go to three a day my system will be stuffed and I will start making mistakes.
Re: (Score:2)
They do make auto-doser machines that might help if you take several. You drop them in a hopper, program when you get them and they pop out on a regular schedule.
Sort of like a candy machine for people on a diet :)
I also bet there is a phone app for it.. to remind you when to take what.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
And at least from a legal perspective, having the containers with you with proper labeling has no bearing on carrying prohibited drugs in an illegal manner unless the drugs are actually in those containers.
Re: (Score:2)
Side effects (Score:2)
You will be prescribed medication by a doctor because you need them, so the presumption here is that you will take them unless you desire the degradation of your health
Even in countries with full socialist health insurance (which isn't a bad thing mind you), medications still have side effects that are at times worse than the disease that they treat. Adding another medication to control the side effects eventually leads to polypharmacy, which as I understand it tends to wreck the liver.
Re: (Score:2)
What are "psychopharmacaca" exactly? Google results aren't really clear.
Re: (Score:2)
Eating prescribed feces as a treatment for psychiatric problems.
Re: (Score:2)
and taking bc pills. Also taking iron pills daily because I would fall flat on my face if I didn't. No, I'm not vegetarian, and I I'd say I eat significantly healthier than most.
I'd go off bc if I could, but doctors won't tie your tubes if you're a woman and haven't had children.
I was reading about iron-deficiency, it apparently widely affects that half of the population that bleeds on a regular monthly basis.