Quote Originally Posted by birdgirl73
At least in Cuba the poor and uninsured have health care, Rebgirl. That is an advantage, despite what people may think, and those folks are very happy with that fact. Ask most Cubans who're old enough to remember whether they're in better shape under Castro and Communism than they were before 1959 and they'll tell you yes across the board.

I can say this with a relative degree assurance since my husband works in medicine and since I am training to do the same. No matter how much people disagree with Michael Moore and his political stance, the facts are that pharmaceutical companies and big insurance DO drive our health care here. It's downright scary, too. Yep, the people who are insured can access quality health care in America, but the ones who are not cannot. They can't usually even get inferior care. And they certainly can't afford drugs. And now it's been fixed for at least another political season that no one in the U.S. can import drugs from less expensive places such as Canada.

Someday if you're ever in Texas, I'd like to take you to an average doctor's office and let you watch the goings-on for, oh, about four days. You'll see the pharmaceutical reps come in constantly all day long and bring lunch for the entire office staff, give gifts, push free samples of the newest (and most expensive drugs) so the docs will write scripts for those and not the more affordable ones. They pay for trips and junkets for doctors and pay stipends so they'll prescribe those meds. Most doctors just roll over and lap up all the freebies and money. That ought to be illegal. It's payola for doctors just like paying bonuses through HMOs to under-treat is--or like special interest money is for politicians. Docs like my husband, who resist the hard sell and shun the money and trips and freebies so they can maintain their objectivity, are very rare. Fortunately, cardiologists treat a large percentage of elderly patients, so they have to make sure they're prescribing the less expensive drugs.

Our medical system is scary as hell in its current state. And with each passing year, fewer and fewer people can afford to get treatment or care and more and more influence is exerted from big Pharma and big Insurance. That's a crying shame.
well said :thumbsup: