No, I got her point. I agree that health insurance should be non-profit (Kaiser is such a model) otherwise you’re choosing between patient coverage and profit. But the subject is too complicated to get into here and do it justice but dropping lines like “some of the meds that are absolutely useless, and/or dangerous” hardly characterizes the overall benefits that the drug companies have provided if you really examine the industry more closely, completely and fairly. But the drug companies are everyone's favorite whipping boy. Of course there have been problems but overall I don't see how anyone can argue that we're not better off because of pharmaceuticals. To do so is naïve and health-food-store "science". Look into the economics of a company like Genetech and see what the costs are of bringing a drug to market, the costs of research on drugs that prove to be dead ends or don't get through clinical trials (no profit there), the relatively short time that they have to recoup their investment before things go generic and I think you'll see that profits are necessary to drive the industry forward and overall we all benefit. There are certainly problems in the industry but overall there's more mythology than fact fueling this discussion which is why I don't think we can really do it justice with this sound-byte approach. I agree, btw, that we do need health insurance (that was my point) and I carry it for me and my family. Without it, in fact, we'd be in serious trouble though I won't get into the details. David Love www.davidlovepianos.com I think you might be missing the point of Susan's rant. Although Susan didn't have it, we all do need insurance. My wife broke her ankle a year ago, and even though she had some limited insurance, we wound up paying almost $20,000 out of pocket, out of a nearly $40,000 bill. What Susan is right about, however, is that medicine, which used to be basically no-profit, is now become a corporate giant, which only cares about profits, and not the heath of our population. Doctors are forced, by the HMO's they belong to, to order test after test, most of which are unnecessary, not because there might be something wrong with you, but because the HMO is covering their backsides, to protect them against lawsuits. They order the tests because there is money to be made by them, which makes the HMO's bottom line look better. The tests, in turn, are charged to the insurance company which then raises rates to cover the expense. And round and round it goes. Now the government want to get involved, which means our taxes are going up. All because of the greed of the HMO's, Big Pharma, and Insurance companies. Yes, there are some very good thing happening in medicine, but don't get me started about some of the meds that are absolutely useless, and/or dangerous. Just listen to all the "side effects" of some of the med commercials. These aren't "side effects". In most cases, these meds are causing more harm than good. This might not be directly related to piano work, but in a sense, it is related to how much we make tuning pianos. When insurance rates go up, we have to charge more to tune pianos. But when we charge more, customers are reluctant to get their pianos tuned, which reduces our income. This is why it is imperative for us to stay healthy, and vote for the candidates who will work to reduce our health costs. end of rant. Wim
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