It’s the oldest story in the world — people want to live forever. Faust, Dorian Gray, Lord Voldemort, etc. It is a recurring theme in our culture.
I think that sickness and death are part of the deal we get. Trying too hard to make illness go away opens the door to all kinds of bad things. COVID is a recent example — a respiratory illness like the flu or the common cold became a really good excuse to impose tyranny and destroy our economy. Great. And we still had the sniffles.
I realize that most people like modern medicine and get pretty pumped at new medical advances. I do not. I find very little to like in medicine. I’m strange.
What most people don’t think about is that even at its best, medical care doesn’t prolong life so much as it merely briefly forestalls the inevitable…death. So many act as though this life is it, and they will live forever here. They’re like passengers on the sinking Titanic who spend their last brief moments above water trying to bail the ship out with a teacup, instead of getting into a lifeboat.
You are correct.
The US prescribes and uses more drugs and spends more money than any other country.
Crony capitalism + big business dont produce better health outcomes.
Nor do our huge number of childhood vaccines (compared to all other nations) lead to healthier children in the US.
It is no longer a healthcare industry, but a sick care industry that is optimized to produce profit.
And it is ridiculously more expensive by far than other Western countries.
“I think that sickness and death are part of the deal we get.”
__________
I know that sickness and death are part of the deal we get.
I ***think*** you know that too but are more polite and more skilled than I in the art of persuasion!
You’re not alone . I happen to agree with you. And I graduated from nursing school in 1984
The only thing I really like is advances in imaging.