The structure of our health care system is up-side down.

The federally funded programs we have are focused on paying for doctor, hospital, and preventative costs, while research and development are done by private pharmacological corporations. Those corporations patent their findings and charge high prices for them to recover the costs of the research and generate profits.

Maybe if we reversed that the system would work better.

I mean, lets pay for the development of new medicines with public funds, and the patents for new ones be owned by the government. When new ones are found and tested the govt could license ALL the pharma companies to produce them. That way every new drug would be a generic from day one. The producers would face price competition and the drugs would be less expensive.

Not only that, but more resources could be directed at natural sources for new medicines. Has anyone bought any vitamins lately that say with Lycopene on the label? Lycophene has been available in health food stores for a long time, and has been proven to be effective in improving heart health. Its the chemical in some vegetables that gives them their red color. Plant extracts (phytochemicals) do not treat the symptoms of a disease or condition, they cure the disease or correct the condition.

Unfortunately, phytochemicals can't be patented because they occur in nature, so corporations can't make big profits from them.

Wal-Mart fills prescriptions for a large number of generic medications for $4.00 each. How much would insurance costs go down if ALL medications were $4.00 per prescription?

I know that we provide grants and other forms of support for developing new medicines already... so why do the companies who develop those new medicines get the patents? Or do they?

The other side of the system is insurance. If the price of drugs came down significantly the cost of insurance would also come down. An assigned risk system could be used to ensure that insurance is available to everyone. Insurance companies could get tax deductions for the above normal costs (to them) of servicing high-risk policies. They already adjust rates based on personal choices which statisically increase the risk of a high pay-out.

The general idea is to get the government out of the insurance business and put them into the business of co-ordinating and funding research. Sure, research is expensive, but I think that the savings to the public would substantially outweigh the costs of research. Additionally, researchers would be just as motivated to find naturally occuring treatments and cures as to developing expensive procedures to synthesize drugs from those naturally occuring chemicals.

Crazy idea?

P.S. There are already natural treatments and cures for many of our problems, like cancer and diabetes.