According to the physician and author, Dr. Carter Multz, American healthcare in 2006 cost $1.9 trillion dollars. Thirty-three percent of the healthcare dollar goes to administrative costs, which makes little sense when other countries have far better healthcare with much lower costs. His book is American Medicine Mismanaged Care.
One of the reasons U.S. healthcare is so expensive is that the pharmaceutical companies make the largest profit of any of the U.S.corporations. Melody Petersen, gives further insight into the pharmaceutical companies' enormous profits in her new book How the Pharmaceutical Companies Transformed Themselves Into Slick Marketing Machines and Hooked the Nation on Prescription Drugs. She notes that between 1980 and 2003, Americans increased their spending on prescription drugs an enormous seventeen times. The drug companies with their TV and magazine ads have seduced consumers into thinking that every symptom can be treated with a pill. A good diet, exercise, having fun, and finding a balance in life are not questions that most doctors ask about these days. It is faster to write a prescription for a patient than it is to sit down and take a good history and do a physical examination. It is said that 75% of patient ills could be helped with the old-fashioned "art of medicine" which means having compassion and connection with patients. As Melody Petersen notes in her book and I also have also noted in my book, 101 Ways To The Best Medical Care, symptoms can also be caused by a drug or the interaction of one or more drugs a patient is taking.
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