Why is American health care so expensive?

First, a disclaimer: I don't know why Carac (0.5% flourouracil cream) is so expensive. I will speculate, though, at the very end of this blog. Sun and the skin: what happens If a person reaches a certain age, has very little pigment in her skin, and has spent lots of time in the sun, bad stuff happens. The ultraviolet radiation of the sun does all kinds of great things: it makes us happy, causes us to synthesize vitamin D which strengthens our bones and it gives us this healthy glow until we get old and wrinkled and leathery. And even that can be charming. The skin cells put up with this remarkably well for a long time, partly aided by melanin pigment which absorbs the radiation, which is why we tan and freckle, if we are fair skinned. Eventually, though, we absorb enough radiation that it injures the skin and produces cells which multiply oddly. It also damages the skin's elasticity which creates wrinkles. The cells which reproduce in odd ways peel, creating dry skin or...

 Facts (from the Centers for Disease Control Health report , 2013) : The consumption of opioid pain medications (like morphine, hydrocodone an oxycodone) increased 300% between 1999 and 2010. The death rates from poisoning by opioid pain medications more than tripled during that time. The greatest increases in deaths from opioids were seen in non-Hispanic whites and American Indian/Alaskan native populations, who showed a 4 fold increase in deaths. I have written several blogs on this, most recently talking about the experience of working with a large group of outpatients who are habituated to these drugs and are experiencing side effects, including addiction, along with small improvements in pain that are clearly not worth the devastating consequences of taking these drugs long term. "What is so devastating?" you may ask. Here are some stories* (names and details changed for privacy): Crystal is 43 years old. She was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, a painful con...

Lately I've had the opportunity to work in an outpatient clinic where the regular doctor is out sick for a prolonged period of time. It is a breathtakingly beautiful little community, with green hills and a crystal clear river. It is also troubled by methamphetamine and prescription drug abuse. The little clinic in town is unwittingly a partner in this crime. Like the US itself, this small community clinic has been generous with prescribing controlled substances for those who appear to need them. Sedatives in the benzodiazepine (Valium, Ativan and Xanax are brand name examples ) family are prescribed for those with anxiety. Opiates, from the family that includes morphine, are prescribed for patients with back pain and knee pain and a host of other long lasting pains, and continue to be prescribed monthly for round the clock use, sometimes at increasing doses, since these long term pains rarely go away, even on medications. Every young person these days seems to have attention d...

I just got back from the annual meeting of the American College of Physicians, an organization of internal medicine physicians with about 140,000 members. In the annual meetings organizational things take place, such as recognition of particularly hard working members and a kind of graduation ceremony in which members who have achieved a certain level of accomplishment are advanced to fellowship. Mostly, though, the tens of thousands who attend are there to go to lectures and discussions by doctors who know things that we all want to know. It is possible when attending these meetings to get a general idea of what the leadership in internal medicine thinks is important or acceptable. This year one of the themes seemed to be "reduction of variability." Only one talk actually used those words, but many of the speakers mentioned that they were encouraged to present the "party line" meaning published guidelines by specialty organizations within the ACP. Guidelines a...