Have you seen any real cures? The 'cures' being offered are properly described as 'managed care'... another cute way to keep the money coming in from patients and their insurance companies.
In this regard, I do not hold much hope of the US curing these types of problems in the future. In the past, we would have. But since the 90s, its been about 'managing' the 'problem' instead of solving it. The medical field, thanks to HMOs, has turned into a bunch of parasites... which is exactly what Hilary? wants.. thereby 'granting' us proper health care, under her new 'health plan'... which would be controlled by Etna, of course.
For a real cure to real diseases, I expect them to come from countries like China, where profit is not the motivating factor. (this ought to get me flamed) With 2b+ people, its in their best interest to solve the major health problems in order to drop their costs. Of course, noone says they won't charge the rest of the world for the cure.. but at least it will work.
Communist countries are notorious for considering their people expendable, so there is no reason to believe the communist rulers will put workers' health above a good cruise missile and the chance to reduce over population.
You say we would have cured cancer in the old days - but we didn't. Still, you are correct that the profit motive can have an insidious effect. For example, the pharma industry will not go down certain research roads unless they can hope to turn a profit in X years. And I wouldn't completely put it past them to hide a cure that would render their market obsolete.