"Jenn" > wrote in message
...
> In article .net>,
> "Steven P. McNicoll" > wrote:
>
> > "john" > wrote in message
> > ...
> > >
> > > So what am I to deduce from that statement? That the health care needs
> > > of all the people in the country was adequately taken care of during
> > > that period?
> > >
> >
> > Pretty much. Prior to government meddling health care was far more
> > affordable than it is today.
> >
> >
>
> the overhead for medicare is tiny compared to private insurance companies
>
> the one sure thing when healthcare is turned over to for profits is that
> the costs go way up -- and service goes down
>
> there are problems of providing a high cost high demand service with
> limited resources through government -- but none of these are solved by
> private markets unless leaving people without care and bankrupting
> everyone else with medical problems is the solution one is after

Medicare costs so much because the drugs costs so much! The drugs costs
so much because the big pharma drug companies have to do FDA mandated drug
tests that costs from 200 million to 650 million each and then they can
patent their useless concoctions and have exclusive rights to them and then
literally soak the people with obscene markups in prices. What follows is a
short explanation from the 'Life extension Foundation' on what drugs really
costs!

[ Do you ever wonder how much it costs a drug company to obtain the active
ingredient in a prescription medication? Life Extension did a search of
offshore chemical synthesizers that supply the active ingredients found in
drugs approved by the FDA.

WHAT DRUGS REALLY COST
BRAND NAME CONSUMER PRICE
(For 100 tabs/caps) COST OF GENERIC ACTIVE INGREDIENT
(For 100 tabs/caps) PERCENT MARKUP
Celebrex 100 mg $130.27 $0.60 21,712%
Claritin 10 mg $215.17 $0.71 30,306%
Keflex 250 mg $157.39 $1.88 8,372%
Lipitor 20 mg $272.37 $5.80 4,696%
Norvasc 10 mg $188.29 $0.14 134,493%
Paxil 20 mg $220.27 $7.60 2,898%
Prevacid 30 mg $344.77 $1.01 34,136%
Prilosec 20 mg $360.97 $0.52 69,417%
Prozac 20 mg $247.47 $0.11 224,973%
Tenormin 50 mg $104.47 $0.13 80,362%
Vasotec 10 mg $102.37 $0.20 51,185%
Xanax 1mg $136.79 $0.024 569,958%
Zestril 20 mg $89.89 $3.20 2,809%
Zithromax 600mg $1,482.19 $18.78 7,892%
Zocor 40mg $350.27 $8.63 4,059%
Zoloft 50mg $206.87 $1.75 11,821%
A significant percentage of drugs sold in the United States contain active
ingredients that are actually synthesized in other countries. Drug companies
import these active ingredients into the United States where they wind up in
the expensive drugs you buy at the local pharmacy. While the FDA says you
cannot trust drugs from other countries, the facts are that most of the
drugs sold in the United States contain active ingredients synthesized in
the very countries the FDA says you cannot trust.

In our independent investigation of how much profit drug companies really
make, we obtained the actual price of active ingredients used in some of the
most popular drugs sold in America. The chart to the right speaks for
itself.

The astounding profit margin enjoyed by drug companies exposes several
facts. First, it shows why the pharmaceutical industry is the most
profitable of all businesses. But since large drug companies only make
around 15% net profit margins, it also exposes the incredible cost drug
companies bear to comply with today's burdensome drug approval system.* If
the FDA relaxed its drug approval standards, the cost of bringing new
patented drugs could be reduced. ]]

As you can see these are obscene markups in prices compared to actual
costs of the ingredients in the medicine! Is this an across the board policy
of the capitalist right winger's just to downgrade socialistic leftwing
ideas. I only have to say that left wing principles should be implemented by
left wingers, not pseudo left winger's.