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A sick society
May. 15th, 2008 11:23 amA report from Medco Health Solutions claims that 51% of Americans with health insurance took chronic medication in 2007. It surveyed 2.7m Americans in the survey and found that 52% of men aged 20 or older were on chronic medication, while 64% of women aged 20 or more were on chrinic medication. One in 14 of the US population that has health insurance takes five or more medications.
Talk about making sure that you get value for money.
Most likely "reasons" for this perpetual and legal drug ingestion were: high blood pressure", "lipids", allergies, and depression.
This brings into light a possible new option to Hillary Clinton's health reform proposals. Perhaps she should just go on TV and tell the American population to pull itself together.
The survey raises serious questions about American society whichever way you look at it. If these illnesses are real, then there is something wrong with a society which makes more than half of those who can afford health insurance ill. And if the illnesses are imagined, then what is it about American society that causes people to feel a need to be sick? And not just sick this week, but sick forever.
Anyone who watches US TV might see part of the answer. The daytime adverts for medicaids are only slightly less relentless than they are for personal injury lawyers. Prescription drugs are a consumer item. Cures for "hypertension" don't need to be drug-related. "Depression" is, more often than not, little more than "not ecstatically happy like the adverts tell me to be". And the whole cholesterol debate brings us back to phlogiston. Solid, impartial evidence in the cholesterol world is hard to come by. Everyone involved has an interest in cholesterol being a real threat.
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Sad to see that Tommy Burns, ex-Celtic player, has lost his battle against cancer, but I was pleased to see that many Glasgow hospitals have already paid tribute to the man by naming one of their hospotal units in his honour.
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Talk about making sure that you get value for money.
Most likely "reasons" for this perpetual and legal drug ingestion were: high blood pressure", "lipids", allergies, and depression.
This brings into light a possible new option to Hillary Clinton's health reform proposals. Perhaps she should just go on TV and tell the American population to pull itself together.
The survey raises serious questions about American society whichever way you look at it. If these illnesses are real, then there is something wrong with a society which makes more than half of those who can afford health insurance ill. And if the illnesses are imagined, then what is it about American society that causes people to feel a need to be sick? And not just sick this week, but sick forever.
Anyone who watches US TV might see part of the answer. The daytime adverts for medicaids are only slightly less relentless than they are for personal injury lawyers. Prescription drugs are a consumer item. Cures for "hypertension" don't need to be drug-related. "Depression" is, more often than not, little more than "not ecstatically happy like the adverts tell me to be". And the whole cholesterol debate brings us back to phlogiston. Solid, impartial evidence in the cholesterol world is hard to come by. Everyone involved has an interest in cholesterol being a real threat.
++++++++++++++++
Sad to see that Tommy Burns, ex-Celtic player, has lost his battle against cancer, but I was pleased to see that many Glasgow hospitals have already paid tribute to the man by naming one of their hospotal units in his honour.
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