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by rayiner 817 days ago
Because Americans don’t want a healthcare system that tells grandma they’re too old for expensive surgery.
2 comments

We also don't want a healthcare system that focuses on prevention. A significant percentage of what the USA spends on healthcare could be mitigated with prevention. But there's no profit in prevention, and the general population doesn't want to sacrifice comfort and convenience. "What do you mean change my diet and lifestyle??"
> But there's no profit in prevention

Drugs such as semaglutide (Ozempic, Wegovy) and tirzepatide (Mounjaro, Zepbound) are making massive profits, and also have decent odds of preventing many obesity-induced (and also diabetes-induced) diseases

Okay, they also have side effects, and it is possible the disease burden caused by the side effects may (in the long-run) turn out to be worse than the disease burden they prevent. But, while that's a possibility, it is only a possibility, a possibility which could easily not come pass to

And even if some of those drugs turn out to have unacceptable side effects in the long-run, there are other drugs in that class in the pipeline which might avoid those side effects, in which case the profits will shift to those

> Okay, they also have side effects, and it is possible the disease burden caused by the side effects may (in the long-run) turn out to be worse than the disease burden they prevent. But, while that's a possibility, it is only a possibility, a possibility which could easily not come pass to

This is very unlikely to happen. This isn't like other obesity drugs that were first in class, glp-1 agonists have been around a long time and have a great safety record.

Obesity is 8% higher in the US than the UK.

The NHS costs half as much per captia as medicare, medicaid, etc and provides universal coverage.

That isn't it. It's simply theft.

If it was too expensive the time to say something isn't after a lifetime of cashing insurance premium checks.