My doctor tried to give me a scrip for Symbacort as a preventive measure to slow down development of COPD. I refused it because I don't have trouble breathing, don't think inhaling a corticosteroid is a good idea unless there's a serious respiratory problem, and finally because I'm not about to help fund the multimillion dollar television ad campaign for that product.
My dad practiced medicine from 1917 to 1972. In his day pharmaceuticals were advertised only in medical journals. There were no hospital CEOs, CFOs, CMOs, CCOs, and so on to suck six and seven figure compensation out of the system. There was a business manager, sometimes known as a hospital administrator, and his clerical staff. The only "Chief" at a hospital was the medical Chief of Staff and the business manager answered to him and to the hospital board. American hospitals were primarily community owned and funded. Many patient services were performed by volunteers.
The leeches attached themselves to the system when corporations decided there was money to be made by acquiring hospitals and clinics. Dad always trumpeted the efficiencies of the free market. One day in the mid 1980's I asked him "Well, how do you like the change in health care in Greenville County, now that corporate know-how has replaced public sector ineptitude?" He said "Always have to be right, don't you? You know damn well it's awful. Don't ask me again."
That was long before corporate extortion reached today's levels; by 2012, one dollar out of five from the median income family's after-tax income went for health care. If you have health care benefits at work, they're part of your compensation package; your employer may cut the check, but you're paying.
