I was running low on BP medicine in Dubai and walked into a pharmacy to get a refill. The pharmacist asked what I needed and I told her, she just handed them to me. I asked if she needed to see the prescription on the old bottles and she said nope, no need. They're not going to give you morphine without a prescription, but most drugs you just tell them what you want and pay for it. That's the way it should be but in the U.S. we have to treat everyone like children because God forbid somebody might be able to receive medical care without jumping through a ton of hoops and everybody getting their cut of the money.
Dubai’s health care is subsidized, and “free” for Emirati nationals; there is no free market health care there so everyone at the top is getting “their cut” no matter what. Our free market share, such as it was, is almost kaput. Is that what you want for the USA?
Absolutely agree.
“Most drugs should be over the counter or at least available without a prescription.”
That’s one of my pet peeves. When I was about 30 years old I started bodybuilding. I wanted to take steroids. I was an adult, and informed. I also trained with a medical doctor who used steroids. But to get them involved dealing with, well, drug dealers, and that was beyond my level of acceptable behavior. As a mentally competent adult, who’s business is it if I want to walk into a drug store and buy steroids, or anti-bacterial eye drops, or just about any other medication? It’s all about control and profit.