President Trump wants to bring back drug manufacturing to the United States. Yet, he is unlikely to do so to any significant degree. About 90% of the drugs Americans take are generic drugs. Generic drugs are those that have lost patent protection. The profit margins on generic drugs are slim, and competition is often fierce.
Category: Doctors & Hospitals
What Do We Know About Socialism?
“Bolivarian socialism” … took Venezuela from being South America’s richest country to a humanitarian catastrophe. Sweden attempted a form of socialism in the 1970s and ’80s, only to reverse course after it experienced massive capital flight and a financial crisis during which interest rates hit 75 percent. France’s Socialist government imposed a 75 percent tax on earnings over one million euros in 2012; it dropped the tax two years later as the wealthy packed their bags. Britain’s National Health Service, whose advocates chronically complain is “underfunded,” is in a state of perpetual crisis even as health care, according to the BBC, gobbles up roughly one third of government spending.
Source: Bret Stephens, New York Times
Would You Discuss Your Health with an AI Chatbot?
From the Wall Street Journal, Daniel Akst wrote:
Once upon a time, my wife’s uncle, Jim, delivered babies, set broken bones, diagnosed diseases, and helped people reconcile themselves to mortality. That’s what family physicians did in those days.
Things are different now, and the doctor I most often consult is AI. I’d prefer to see Uncle Jim, but if physicians like him still exist somewhere, I doubt I could get an appointment. How I ended up resorting to artificial intelligence—despite excellent health insurance and proximity to great care—says a lot about the state of healthcare in this country.
Why is Health Reform So Difficult?
Why can’t people agree on strategies to fix health care? It is due to many things, including disagreements on health economics, self-interest, and fundamental differences in ideology. Every public intellectual has an idea that may, or may not, do anything to improve health care.