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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple style='word-wrap:break-word'><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #E1E1E1 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b>…</b>> <b>On Behalf Of </b>Gadersd via extropy-chat<br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [ExI] morality<o:p></o:p></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><p class=MsoNormal>>…If a doctor tries to prevent disease in American that says something about his or her moral virtues, but the incentive structure of the US healthcare system does not much encourage disease prevention…<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Gadersd, the above is an oversimplification. There are insurance structures such as the Health Maintenance Organizations, which do incentivize the doctors to keep their patients healthy. I am in one of those. The insurance payment structure offers an incentive to visit the doctor once a year, and to meet online with a personal health coach.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>So the problem you point out can be dealt with given a for-profit health system and a for-profit insurance structure.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><p class=MsoNormal>>…I am skeptical that the astronomical prices are really necessary…<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Ja. Our drug qualification process takes an average of half a billion dollars. Once a company gets a medication thru all that, they must make back the investment. They charge a lotta money for their product. Countries all over the world use the medications that make it thru USFDA approval, and they get the meds for less money than the US consumer. Sure we did this to ourselves. But what if… the fed goes chapter 11, it needs to make some hard choices on who gets paid and who doesn’t. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>The Social Security recipients will still get paid because they paid for the benefits to start with. The army can’t be abandoned in the field, nor the navy at sea. Work thru the possibilities, and one soon sees the regulation industry needs to be dismissed, which would mean either no new drug approvals until the budget recovers, or a blanket permission for drug companies to sell whatever they want.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>>…I think at the very least some price controls may be justifiable…<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Controls are hard to get, and getting harder.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>>…Taxes on junk food…<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>The term junk food defies definition.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>>… and alcohol…<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Did that already, along with tobacco. It required the formation of an entire bureaucracy to do it, the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms division of the Justice Department. If the US government’s Borrow-As-You-Go strategy it has had since shortly after world war 2 collapses and the fed resorts to a Pay As You Go government, the ATF is one of the bureaus likely on the chopping block.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>>…may be helpful for subsidizing healthcare<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Existing healthcare subsidies are likely also on the chopping block with the transition of BAYGo to PAYGo. The cuts will need to be profound.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>>… and encouraging people to eat healthier…<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>But that doesn’t cost anything. That’s what my doctor does already.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>spike<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal><br><br><o:p></o:p></p></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></div></body></html>