From the Economist, here: It's getting bad. Real bad! That red-line curve is skyrocketing! What the hell is going on? We Yanks have decided that life isn't worth living, so we take the Opioid Exit ... ?
Yes, this definitely has an economic connection. (Maybe why it appeared in The Economist ?) Pain in Middle America Resort Towns in the Mountain West: How New Money Destroyed Old Communities Anyway the problem is even if the job market recovers, all these people are still hooked on the opioids and things are declining fast. Some of the blame lies on the big pharma companies who knew there was a problem going on but kept on enabling the addicts because there was so much profit to be had. Legalized drug peddling. We're mostly talking older White middle aged rural people who might have intitially been prescribed these opiates by their doctor for pain, but then because of their depressed life circumstances, financial struggles and lack of hope got hooked.
I'm a chronic pain patient and was in nerve pain since birth, never knew a pain free day, one does get used to it to a degree but use non-pharmacy options (meditation, stress management), Lyrica at the maximum dosage, CBD oil (100mg/day) and Generic Percocet (5mg Oxycodone/375mg Tylenol 3 to 4x/day) and due to a bad heart they won't try other options such as surgery. But I'm gone from taking 80mg of narcotics a day to a quarter of that. And the system treats me like potential addict and addict doesn't reduce narcotic use I take what I need to feel better and so I can live a normal life. But I'm not alone many pain patients are scared we are losing access to needed doctors and care due to a number of bad actors. What about us if a man or woman needs a high dose regimen of narcotics and it for pain under responsible pain specialists the government should not interfere. My physicians who do pain care won't go over 20mg pills as a general rule there are exceptions if surgery isn't an option and other drugs won't work they will then the government gives them hell and lots of paperwork. I feel sorry for addicts but the patient bears a lot of responsibility to I only ask for what I need and try to do everything I can to lessen pain without narcotics. The doctors and pharmacists bear responsibility and if they are bad actors it should be dealt with. But why blame the drugs they have a place in medical care the drugs aren't bad easing suffering is one place medicine has a duty to treat.
I am sorry to hear of your daily pain and find that you must very courageous to put up with something over which you have no or little control. (One never knows where new drugs will evolve and I hope one does indeed make it to market for you). As for the rest of America, I have been away in Europe since the 1980s. I get reports from family about healthcare and I am amazed at the difference between "here" in France and "there". The difference is that between night-and-day. Adequate healthcare is a fundamentally basic right in any "modern society" and one should not have to prove they are working in order to obtain it! Even more curious is the ranking of Health Care amongst developed countries based upon investigated national situations according to uniform criteria. If anyone cares to wonder what Bill&Malinda Gates Foundation is up to, here's a peek below. This infographic comes from their site and is based upon a worldwide study that they funded: Excerpted from the study: Nope, the US is not even in the top-Ten. And it is difficult to find the overall ranking because the study does not "agglomerate" its findings into just one overall category as studies have shown in the past. The above listing of the top-ten seems to be the only one available resulting from the study (sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation). From the above graphic, we can understand that the US is of a lower ranking than some European countries. What the HAQ Index does not establish is the "COMPARATIVE cost of healthcare comparatively amongst countries". For that comparative index I had to go the World Economic Forum to obtain (from here) this infographic: Yes, the US is that blue-bar on the far right end of the graphic is total cost as a percent of GDP. Now, please, will someone explain to me why the US has a healthcare system that costs MUCH MORE per capita than the European variety and delivers a lifespan much lower than other countries! National healthcare in Europe is sponsored by governments (out of national taxation) with fixed low-fees. Most importantly, however, note that my lifespan here in (high taxation) France is more than yours in the US! See here more obviously comparative lifespans by country: For a deeper analysis of the results, go to The Lancet here. From which, this excerpt: *This does not man "ninth place". A decile is "one-tenth" of the total.
The U.S. is not a First World country; it's a Third World country existing side by side in parallel with a First World country. Until you can understand that, many of the statistics will have difficulty making sense in comparison with other countries. Anyway, what's happening here is only half related to that.
The disparity among nations is simple if you were an insurance company in 2005 and you had a choice: Spend say $10,000 trying many methods of pain care and some surgical options costing a lot more OR give the patient a prescription for a narcotic spending $1200 annually which would YOU approve and push doing and which would you fight hard every step? I think the bottle of common narcotics is a far better option between the two. They even fought when they wanted to prescribe Lyrica for me its around $800 a month and giving me four times the narcotics would be only $200 a month then add in a psychiatrist and psychologist for my therapy and stress reduction training for a year and support group for pain and hospitalization for a month as they tried different drugs to help my issues and the pills are very attractive and far cheaper. In EU nations the cost of care isn't as much a concern and they can try lots of options without fighting for it.
Do you understand that Healthcare insurance companies do not exist in countries with a National Healthcare Service? In these countries, there is top-up insurance to make sure that if you want a single-bed room you can get one to make your hospital stay more agreeable. Also, for instance, dental-work is not always included in the National Healthcare Service.
