American Healthcare continues to go backward

[OrangeFan69]

America gets such little bang for the buck in healthcare.

If either political party committed to subpoenas for Healthcare, Pharma and Insurance CEOs and held their feet to their fire and caused change they could run on that for multiple election cycles. It's unfortunate that very few politicians have the political gumption to do the right thing.

It's part of the reason people like Bernie Sanders. He calls out the BS

 

[RxCowboy]

America gets such little bang for the buck in healthcare.

If either political party committed to subpoenas for Healthcare, Pharma and Insurance CEOs and held their feet to their fire and caused change they could run on that for multiple election cycles. It's unfortunate that very few politicians have the political gumption to do the right thing.

It's part of the reason people like Bernie Sanders. He calls out the BS

It depends entirely on what you mean by “bang for the buck”. On the high end we are still the world innovators. When someone needs innovative, highest end healthcare they still look to the United States to provide it. It’s providing primary care and preventive care where we fail, well, and getting people to live basic healthy lives… public health.

Most people toddle along in their basic unhealthy lives not accessing basic primary and preventative care because they can’t afford it and/or they don’t believe in it until they have a catastrophic health event. Then they access really expensive care, which they also can’t afford, when much less expensive care might have prevented the catastrophic event. I’ve spent my whole career trying to prevent the catastrophic events.

It’s not just the system though. My “specialty” is cardiovascular risk reduction. I just underwent my annual review. One of my performance measures is percentage of diabetics and patients with 10 year cardiovascular risk greater than 7.5% on statins. But here in Nothern Michigan there is a strong anti-statin, statins reduce the risk of heart attack (and stroke to a lesser extent), bias and it is a performance measure that my supervisor admits is impossible for me to achieve because of that. It is societal. Look at the MAHA movement and the antivaxxers. These people are actually anti things that reduce healthcare costs.

Congress might be able to call some pharma and insurance CEOs to the carpet, but what can they do about anti-statin and anti-vax in Northern Michigan?

 

[steross]

America gets such little bang for the buck in healthcare.

If either political party committed to subpoenas for Healthcare, Pharma and Insurance CEOs and held their feet to their fire and caused change they could run on that for multiple election cycles. It's unfortunate that very few politicians have the political gumption to do the right thing.

It's part of the reason people like Bernie Sanders. He calls out the BS

The CEOs would simply point to the fact that they are fully following the laws that congress has made. The congress has made the laws that overwhelmingly favor them due to lobbying.

To fix this, congress will be required to go against their own personal best interest and for the American people. So far, it is better for them to scream "Socialism" or "they want to take your Medicare" rather than fix anything.

 

[steross]

San Francisco files 1st-of-its-kind lawsuit against largest ultraprocessed food manufacturers

Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, General Mills, Kellogg, and Kraft Heinz are some of the 10 major corporations being sued by San Francisco, which is arguing they unfairly marketed ultraprocessed foods and products they knew would make people sick.

abc7news.com

This could be huge if successful somehow.

San Francisco files 1st-of-its-kind lawsuit against largest ultraprocessed food manufacturers​

Bay City News
Tuesday, December 2, 2025 10:11PM

SAN FRANCISCO -- San Francisco filed a lawsuit Tuesday against several major companies that manufacture ultra-processed foods, alleging that the corporations knowingly created unhealthy and addictive products in order to boost sales.

"These products in our diets are deeply linked to serious health conditions," said City Attorney David Chiu in a speech during a briefing on the lawsuit. "Our case is about companies who designed food to be harmful and addictive and marketed their products to maximize profits."

Ultra-processed foods, or UPFs, are foods that have been created with chemical additives that have limited nutritional value and little to no food uses outside of processing. They include products like certain brands of chips, boxed macaroni, breakfast cereals, soda, cheese, candies, and processed meats.

Chiu stood in his office along with supporters of the suit like Supervisor Shamann Walton, San Francisco Public Health Director Daniel Tsai, and several members of the medical field.

"Ultra processed foods themselves cause unique health risks because of their chemicals and because of how those chemicals are combined," Chiu said. "You can see a few of the worst offenders right there."
Chiu pointed to a table covered in products considered to be ultra-processed, such as Oreo cookies, Lunchables, Cheetos, Hot Pockets, and Pringles.

"My mother used to bribe me with Pringles to get me into the pool to take swim lessons," Chiu said. "I still crave them to this day, but just in recent months, I've learned about the specific harms of just this product alone."

Studies have shown that overconsumption of UPFs can lead to adverse health conditions such as Type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease, cardiovascular disease, colorectal cancer, and depression.

The suit was filed against major food manufacturing companies including The Kraft Heinz Company, Mondelez International, The Coca-Cola Company, Nestle USA, General Mills, PepsiCo, Kellanova, WK Kellogg Co., Mars Incorporated, Conagra Brands, and Post Holdings.

 

[cowboyinexile]

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