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Cancer in America Is Way Down, For the Wealthy Anyway (bloomberg.com)

The good news is that cancer in America was beaten back over the 25 years ending 2016, with death rates plummeting, particularly when it comes to the four most common types of the dreaded affliction. From a report: There's a caveat, however. Those gains have been reaped mostly by the well-off. While racial disparities have begun to narrow, the impact of limited access to treatment for the poorest Americans has increased wealth-based inequality, according to the American Cancer Society's annual update on trends and statistics. "Any time you have a disease as serious as cancer, when you have a substantial reduction in deaths, that's a notable achievement," said Len Lichtenfeld, the interim chief medical officer for the American Cancer Society. "But there are still a lot of areas for improvement."

Health insurance and access to care can be an issue in some poor and rural portions of the country, where there are higher death rates of colon, cervical and lung cancers, according to Cancer Statistics 2019. While poverty was actually associated with lower rates of cancer mortality prior to the 1980s, that trend has since reversed, due in part to changes in diet and smoking as well as screening and treatment rates, the health organization said.

240 comments

  1. True for all medical conditions by OffTheLip · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I am shocked that people with money get better services.

    1. Re:True for all medical conditions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You may have meant it as a joke, but it is shocking that people get better medical care because they are richer. Better "pampering" - not shocking; better actual medicine - shocking.

      But then, the viciousness of US capitalism is shocking in general.

    2. Re:True for all medical conditions by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 4, Funny

      I am shocked that people with money get better services.

      I'm planning on starting a meth lab in a camper if I get cancer so that I can afford the better services.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    3. Re:True for all medical conditions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Me too. I live in Canada. My financial state is not something I need to worry about when visiting a hospital. It's such a strange and alien concept to have your medical needs held hostage by the amount of money you earn.

      But I mean, this is the same country that elected Trump so... *shrug*

    4. Re:True for all medical conditions by jellomizer · · Score: 1

      Well you should be.
      Yes the rich will always get better service. However as medical advancements improve the poorer should be getting the trickle down of these services, and we should see their rate to be proportionally better as well.

      But the problem is Medicaid rates are imposed to be extremely low, roughly 1/3 what people are with insurances are paying. Where the government thinks they are being tough negotiators on Medicaid prices, they are actually just pushing the buck to us who are paying for insurance, or self pay, which cases the $300.00 15 Minute Consultation visit, and $10,000 MRI Scan. But a lot of institutions will not have medicaid patients more then just emergency services. So it is nearly impossible for the poor to treat chronic conditions.

      The problem isn't that the Rich can pay for top of the line stem cell therapy, while the poor is stuck on getting chemo therapy. But the Rich is getting the Stem Cell therapy, while the poor, is waiting for the cancer to get so bad, that they will need to go to the emergency room to get organs removed from their body.

      If we compare other industries, while the rich get the best but the poor is always getting better hand me downs. 10 years ago. The rich would get an iPhone while the poor would have a small flip phone. Today the Rich has the latest iPhone, but the poor has a low end phone with more power then that iPhone 10 years ago. The rich will get the best, but the poor should be getting better as well.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    5. Re:True for all medical conditions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Me too. I live in Canada. My financial state is not something I need to worry about when visiting a hospital. It's such a strange and alien concept to have your medical needs held hostage by the amount of money you earn.

      But I mean, this is the same country that elected Trump so... *shrug*

      Of course you can walk into any hospital and what care you get will not have to be paid for.

      But will you actually get any care? I thought that to keep it affordable, you only get treatment if you meet certain criteria.

      In other words, if you're 90 years old, no heart transplant for you, no matter how healthy you may otherwise be.

      So, yeah, "free" care.

      Maybe.

    6. Re:True for all medical conditions by jeff4747 · · Score: 4, Informative

      But will you actually get any care? I thought that to keep it affordable, you only get treatment if you meet certain criteria.

      You thought wrong.

      In other words, if you're 90 years old, no heart transplant for you, no matter how healthy you may otherwise be.

      Guess what? No heart transplant for 90 year olds in the US either. The eligibility criteria for getting on the transplant list would exclude an otherwise-healthy 90 year old.

    7. Re: True for all medical conditions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Too true

    8. Re:True for all medical conditions by butchersong · · Score: 1

      I double cancer rates correlate to much else but intelligence and personality when it comes down to it. Conscientious smart people are going to have dramatically different diet and lifestyles than the poor which tend on average to be neither of those things in the US.

    9. Re:True for all medical conditions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It invents half the shit, including medicine, invented every year. The row should be more like the US...if concern for saving lives of people, including the poor, is of your concern.

      You can't give it out for "free" until it is invented first.

    10. Re:True for all medical conditions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > But will you actually get any care? I thought that to keep it affordable, you only get treatment if you meet certain criteria.

      Citations please.

      I have never been denied the care I need whenever I have visited a hospital. Wait times can be problematic if your issue isn't critical, but wait times are very quick if your issue IS critical.

      The only time I pay for medical care is for prescription medication (which is heavily subsidised by provincial governments anyways) and I'm fairly certain taking an ambulance in some provinces is billable, and dentistry (which really should be covered by our healthcare system).

      The two biggest problems with Quebec's health care system (each province manages their own health care systems) are nurse shortages and family doctor shortages. The previous Quebec government for some reason offered enormous raises to speciality doctors, who all spoke out against the change demanding that the money be invested into getting more nurses. As for family doctors, there is a waiting list and chances are if you're young and single then your need for a family doctor is not as great as an actual family or someone who is aging. I signed up to the waiting list and took three years to get a family doctor, who I've only seen once in two years.

      Healthcare isn't perfect in Canada or Quebec, but Canada is over all a healthier country than the US. No one in Canada needs to worry about how to pay a hospital bill because there isn't any.

      Cancer survivor rates on on par with the US: https://www.cdc.gov/cancer/dcpc/research/articles/concord-2.htm

      Life expectency is higher: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy

      Infant mortality rate is lower: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_infant_and_under-five_mortality_rates

      Other statistics: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_quality_of_healthcare

      Canada is on par with the United States in most regards. The big difference is that Canadians need not worry about bankruptcy when visiting the ER, or being denied services because of lack of insurance, or what have you. Health care is indeed a right, not a privilege.

    11. Re:True for all medical conditions by Ungrounded+Lightning · · Score: 0

      Me too. I live in Canada. My financial state is not something I need to worry about when visiting a hospital.

      But the waiting time is. What good is "free" medical care if you can't get a broken bone set for a week, or progress from testing to treatment on a rapid cancer until the cancer has progressed to be beyond treatment?

      A substantial amount of the medical service in the northern part of the U.S. is provided to Canadians, paying out-of-pocket in order to get treatment in a timely fashion or to U.S. standards. So even with Canadians the rich get better treatment. (They just don't get it in Canada.)

      --
      Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
    12. Re:True for all medical conditions by MightyMartian · · Score: 1

      While I suppose it is hypothetically possible for a 90 year old to get a heart transplant, at least in any Western country, getting that heart would require breaking laws.

      As to "free care", no it isn't free. It costs a good deal of money, but if the OECD data is any indication, Canada is spending less per capita for health care than the US, and is getting better results, at least if longevity is the metric. I dunno, maybe the US's sick and impoverished are happier than Canada's.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    13. Re:True for all medical conditions by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 1

      Why is that a strange concept? All of your other primary needs are held hostage by the same principle: the food on your table, the roof over your head, utilities, etc... or at least they are in most countries, and this has been the case for most of human history. Why would health care be any different?

      Sure, there's a difference: almost all low income families in industrialized nations can afford food and some sort of housing (sometimes they receive assistance to provide those day-to-day needs, even in "the country that elected Trump"). But even middle class families would be hard up to pay for medical care directly. And in some countries, even the insurance that covers it has been made so expensive that many people simply cannot afford to pay the premiums out of their monthly wages. Thankfully, most countries treat medical care as a day-to-day need, and socialize some or all of the costs. And I'd call not doing so unwise... but I wouldn't go so far as to call it an alien concept".

      --
      If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
    14. Re:True for all medical conditions by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 1

      Are they actually paying out of pocket? Here in the Netherlands, insurance will often cover costs if you go to a specialist in Belgium or Germany (or even India in some cases; they have some world class clinics there). They do so if there's a waiting time in our own hospitals, but in some cases also if you (or your doctor) think you'll get better care abroad. I've heard of some people paying out of pocket for treatment in the US, but that was for stuff not covered by their insurance.

      --
      If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
    15. Re:True for all medical conditions by ceoyoyo · · Score: 5, Informative

      You've bought the anti-"socialized" medicine story. Most metrics, from longevity down, suggest that countries with modern health care systems (ranging from mostly public ones like in the UK and Canada, to the mostly private systems in Switzerland and Singapore) provide better care at a cheaper cost than does the US system.

      In public systems care is prioritized by need. You generally have to wait for elective procedures, unless they would resolve a problem related to mobility or employment, but you don't have to wait for emergency or time-sensitive problems (broken bones, fast growing cancer). There's also fairly little medical tourism to the US. If you want to pay, you can find a private clinic in Canada that will do the job, still cheaper than an American one would.

      Interestingly, mostly private systems ALSO seem to be more efficient than the US system, so it's not as simple as a public versus private system.

    16. Re:True for all medical conditions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      BTW your stealing someone else's labor to provide your healthcare. Its not free.

    17. Re:True for all medical conditions by greylion3 · · Score: 1

      Just eat some apple seeds.

      The number of seeds to eat per day:
      While you have cancer, divide your weight in kilo by 3.
      After the cancer is gone: divide your weight in kilo by 4.

      A kilo is roughly two pounds, so divide your weight in pounds by 6 while having it, 8 after.

      --
      Privacy begins with ..
    18. Re:True for all medical conditions by ceoyoyo · · Score: 1

      The summary is misleading. Cancer incidence and mortality rates the world over have dropped pretty dramatically. In the US, they've dropped in the rich AND the poor. They've dropped more in the rich. From the report:

      https://wol-prod-cdn.literatum...

      Some of the difference is undoubtedly due to access to cutting edge care, but most of it (the report emphasizes this repeatedly, as does the article) is due to public health issues: primarily diet, exercise and smoking.

    19. Re:True for all medical conditions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Workers invented these medicines, capitalism it's self had little to do with it.
      The same effect could be accomplished via a worker cooperative like the Mondragoon Corporation in Spain.
      Capitalists and Landlords are largely leeches who profit off the backs of others.

    20. Re:True for all medical conditions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Why don't you go spend a few hundred grand and years of your life on getting a medical degree and then give your services away?"

      You could also go to a German, French, etc University and get your medical degree for a few hundred bucks.

    21. Re:True for all medical conditions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is provably false. There are MANY more US citizens going to Canada for treatment according to numbers than vice versa. In fact, most Canadians that visit the states usually purchase insurance just for the trip in case something horrible happens and they can't get back to Canada for treatment.

      And there has not been a single instance of anyone waiting a week to get a broken bone set; that's considered an emergency and will get fast tracked. You need to provide some citations (please don't post any that prove you wrong instead, as you often do) or else we'll assume you're shilling.

    22. Re:True for all medical conditions by GLMDesigns · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      Pathetic. Capitalism is the economic system where people invest in solutions in order to make money. Try have a socialist, top-down economic structure get Thanksgiving Turkeys to every store in a continent wide country. It will not get done. The attempt to accomplish this will be abandoned as impossible and impractical.

      And yet thousands of business coordinate their activities to accomplish just this. Now multiply this throughout the economy.

      Abject poverty was the standard throughout the world in 1800 and now, after two centuries of industrialized capitalism we have people declare the economic freedom is evil and the cause of poverty.

      --
      If you're scared of your govt then you need to further restrict its powers
      Vote 3rd Party in 2016 and beyond
    23. Re:True for all medical conditions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I am shocked that people with money get better services.

      True that, plus the title is bullshit. A correct statement would be "Cancer deaths are America are way down for everyone except the poor".

      The article title just says "cancer" without saying cancer deaths or cancer rates. Cancer rates are going up for some cancers, but the deaths for those are going down. So, which is it?
      Plus, not being poor does not automatically mean you are wealthy.

    24. Re:True for all medical conditions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Perhaps you will tithe 20% of your income to help your bleeding SJW heart.

    25. Re: True for all medical conditions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Healthy 90 year old"

    26. Re:True for all medical conditions by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      My wife got cancer two times and was in surgery the next week both times.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    27. Re:True for all medical conditions by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      Us Canadians pat each other on the back a lot and say, 'hey, thanks for the healthcare'.

      Seriously though, I will remind you that the same thing happens with private insurance. A person who has cancer twice will never pay back the full amount of the treatment. The money from that doesn't come from the insurance company.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    28. Re:True for all medical conditions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Tithe literally means "tenth," you twat.

    29. Re:True for all medical conditions by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 1

      A substantial amount of the medical service in the northern part of the U.S. is provided to Canadians, paying out-of-pocket in order to get treatment in a timely fashion or to U.S. standards. So even with Canadians the rich get better treatment. (They just don't get it in Canada.)

      That's an excellent point.

      The rich in countries with socialized medicine either have their own private pay tier (so literally their own special rich tier of health care), or if that isn't allowed they fly to other countries where it is.

    30. Re:True for all medical conditions by youngone · · Score: 1
      I don't live in Canada, but I do live in a couintry with a similar health system.
      My wife broke her ankle last year, and the care was both timely, and at no cost. Just like in Canada.

      What good is "free" medical care if you can't get a broken bone set for a week, or progress from testing to treatment on a rapid cancer until the cancer has progressed to be beyond treatment?

      None of those things happen to those of us who have proper socialised healthcare. If you need treatment, you get it.
      Do we have to worry about "co-pays" or "deductables" or paying an ambulance $5,000? No.
      Your healthcare system is the worst of all possible worlds.

    31. Re:True for all medical conditions by dryeo · · Score: 1

      In my experience, if you have an acute problem, you get treatment pretty fast. Sister needed heart surgery, had to wait a day. Friend has had problems with varicose veins in throat, took him into emergency twice, each time he was getting processed by the time I parked and walked back to emergency with blood applied within an hour and surgery within a day. Another friend shattered her lower leg, fixed, well pinned etc, within a day.
      Now if you have a bad knee or elbow, you might wait too long and go south for treatment and of course Doctors aren't all as capable.
      It does vary on region and some days are worse and each Province is different as the medical system is run at the Provincial level

      --
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
    32. Re:True for all medical conditions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      and now, after two centuries of industrialized capitalism we have people declare the economic freedom is evil and the cause of poverty.

      ... using their computing devices which are the product of that very capitalism.

      Wanna be consistent? Stop using smartphones and computers please.

    33. Re: True for all medical conditions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Right, because the tax payer should pay for undocumented immigrants which account for HALF the number of people being serviced of the total population.

      https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/01/09/new-york-city-care-comprehensive-health-care-plan-concerns/2522924002/

      Build the wall motherfucker!!!!

    34. Re: True for all medical conditions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hogwash. You can buy your way into a heart transplant in the US or Canada at 90. Even if it means paying off every doctor and ethicist. There is a price, even if it has a lot of zeros at the end.

    35. Re: True for all medical conditions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're stealing someone's child in order to provide military defenses.

    36. Re:True for all medical conditions by sad_ · · Score: 1

      I am shocked, doctors normally take the hyppocratic oath, it contains things like;

      "... I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures [that] are required, avoiding those twin traps of overtreatment and therapeutic nihilism. ... I will remember that I remain a member of society, with special obligations to all my fellow human beings, those sound of mind and body as well as the infirm."

      But then, i guess, those are only valid if there is enough money involved.

      --
      On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.
    37. Re: True for all medical conditions by Archangel_Azazel · · Score: 1

      Broken bones...
      Did you bother to read ANY of the comments mentioning that care turns into "NEED BASED"?
      Yes, sweetheart, that would include...your example.

      Thanks for playing this round of "are you smarter than Fox news?", we'll give you a consolation binkie and blanket so you can cry over your wall not being built today.

      --
      Your mind is like a parachute. It works best when it's been opened.
    38. Re: True for all medical conditions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, but we did it for the right reasons dammit! Not some socialist claptrap

    39. Re: True for all medical conditions by jeff4747 · · Score: 1

      No, you can buy a hospital room and operating room in a third world country, and a transplant team willing to travel.

      But you're not getting it in the US. Organs are tracked too closely, and the penalties are too severe.

    40. Re:True for all medical conditions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We must stamp out this blatant ageism!

  2. Equality by fluffernutter · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Good old equality, American style. A person shouldn't be blackmailed with their own life.

    --
    Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    1. Re:Equality by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      Downmod seriously? Someone is in denial.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    2. Re:Equality by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      Any of these staff are free to move into the American system and in fact many do.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    3. Re: Equality by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fucking capitalist bootlicker. Fuck you. You're so brainwashed by this system that you literally can't imagine it working any other way.

    4. Re:Equality by jeff4747 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      And highly trained medical staff shouldn't be forced into slavery, to take care of every health issue for people who can't or won't pay anything for it.

      If only there was some other entity that would pay those medical staff. You know, like the single-payer system in virtually every other developed country. Then it wouldn't be slavery.

      Honestly, I'm tired of people going on, constantly, about equality in America, as though it's something we're obligated to try to achieve, or even a worthy goal?

      Inequality is inefficient. You don't get the "best and brightest", you get the richest and most-connected. And >90% of the time, those rich people got their wealth from their parents, so they're not actually good at anything.

      For example, Trump. His dad made a crapload of money in NY real estate, because he was good at it. Trump has lost enormous amounts of money in NY real estate because he isn't any good at it. That's why he was on a TV show instead of doing more real estate.

      it's really all about giving people a framework of opportunities to better THEMSELVES, if they wish to make the effort.

      What you fail to understand is the effort to benefit from that framework is not equal. The wealthy give their children many advantages that put them ahead within that framework. Again, this means we get massive inefficiency because the person didn't actually make the effort, mom and dad bought their place. So they don't know what the hell they are doing and go bankrupt running a casino. Twice.

      Between doctors and dentists who willingly volunteer some of their time to provide these services

      The last Doctors without Borders event in the US had a line about 3x longer than they could serve. Many were turned away. Charity will not get this done.

      Also, did ya notice the irony of bemoaning "medical professionals working for free" at the start of your post, and "medical professionals working for free" as your preferred solution?

      Finally, Medicaid doesn't cover an enormous swath of uninsured people, thanks to Republicans blocking Medicare expansion from the ACA. Which means they don't get any insurance coverage and thus no medical treatment beyond Emergency Rooms.....which means you are paying a shitload more money in insurance premiums and taxes because the poor can't get preventative care.

      Single-payer is much cheaper than our current system. You would save a hell of a lot of money. Your taxes would go up, but your insurance premiums would disappear. Netting you a lot more in each paycheck. I don't know about you, but I really don't care if the deduction on my paycheck is labeled "Cigna premium" or labeled "Medicare". But some of those people might not suffer enough for your liking.

      Cancer treatment is HUGELY expensive, though - to the point where many insurance policies even put a "cap" on the amount they'll spend for it over your lifetime

      Nope. One of the things the ACA eliminated was lifetime caps.

      You can't just demand America provide the "best care possible" to everybody

      Sure we can. Every other developed nation pulls it off. Are you saying we can't do what the Canadians can?

    5. Re:Equality by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      Furthermore, so America gets the people who want to get rich off the misfortunes of others and Canada keeps the people who genuinely want to heal those around them. Sounds like a great deal to me.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    6. Re:Equality by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > You'd quickly wind up spending most of your waking hours working to pay government back for providing those costly services to all the other people who used them.

      That explains why the economies of Canada, Norway, and the UK are so pathetic. All units of labour in these countries are exchanged for healthcare services and contribute nothing at all to the GDP of these countries.

    7. Re:Equality by ceoyoyo · · Score: 2

      And highly trained medical staff shouldn't be forced into slavery, to take care of every health issue for people who can't or won't pay anything for it.

      Don't worry, the highly trained medical staff are doing okay. I do medical research. I have more training than the vast majority of physicians. They make a LOT more money.

    8. Re:Equality by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      As far as I know, there is nothing preventing a person from moving to the US after getting such skills. If said person goes into the field to train, not understanding who gets what where then that's hardly anyone else's fault.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    9. Re:Equality by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      Yet the citizens of those countries still manage to live happier and longer. Apparently GDP isn't needed for either.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    10. Re:Equality by fluffernutter · · Score: 2

      In fact, I would argue that the goal of a nation should be to have the happiest people with the lowest GDP. Too much constant stress to produce takes people away from the meaningful things in life. Why have a population that works more than it has to?

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    11. Re:Equality by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They don't get rich off the misfortune of others. They get rich off CURING the misfortunes of others.

    12. Re:Equality by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      And if they didn't have a misfortune, would they be curing them?

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    13. Re:Equality by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The very idea of Doctors without Borders/MSF offering clinics-Not recruiting doctors, not having funding or blood drives, clinics for sick people-in the United States of America is, or at least should be, a mortal blow to our collective ego. How far have we fallen?.

    14. Re:Equality by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What's interesting is that when clamoring for rules to impose upon "the rich" you use examples like trump.
      But when it comes to implementing the rules, you re-define "the rich" to mean folks barely into the middle class.
      And I don't want what the Canadians have imposed on me.

    15. Re:Equality by jeff4747 · · Score: 1

      What's interesting is that when clamoring for rules to impose upon "the rich" you use examples like trump.
      But when it comes to implementing the rules, you re-define "the rich" to mean folks barely into the middle class.

      Alternatively, you're pulling this out of your ass since I supplied exactly zero numbers.

      And I don't want what the Canadians have imposed on me.

      Don't worry, you're free to pay your own way in Canada. You'd be an idiot and paying way more for crappier service, but you can feel all rugged while doing it.

    16. Re: Equality by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      He must be joking since Norway is one of the few countries that have no national debt.

    17. Re: Equality by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually drug companies realized they can get rich off of Not Curing people.

    18. Re:Equality by King_TJ · · Score: 1

      I see all the socialists here have modded my original post down as a "troll" status. (Why am I not that surprised? Typical ...)

      Single-payer is ONE way to handle the idea of "healthcare for all", but it runs completely counter to the principles the USA was founded on. I don't believe that it makes any sense to copy-cat it, just because it's the de-facto way to handle costly services in nations that aren't Democratic Republics.

      Apparently, you don't grasp the difference between people who VOLUNTARILY opt to do some work for free, for the benefit of others, and those who are forced to work under a system where government mandates they be paid a fixed pay rate, no matter how good a level of care they do (or don't) provide? I'm a big proponent of people doing voluntary works of charity, but NOT of a political system that forces those earning an income to give a piece of that income to the government, to fund these services at no cost to everyone else.

      And no, it's VERY clear that most nations in the world offering forms of single-payer or "universal" healthcare are NOT pulling off "providing the best care possible to everyone"! They're providing a mixed bag of generally mediocre levels of care, often with long wait times to see a specialist. Some folks are even dying while waiting for their turn to get help under those systems. That's the result you usually get, EVERY time you advocate socialist solutions -- because a large percentage of people doing the work aren't that motivated to do as good a job as possible. Luckily, the type of personality of someone who wants to become a doctor or a nurse tends to lean towards the more compassionate ones, who will sacrifice a lot to help others out. But still? They're not properly rewarded for going above and beyond, putting in a lot of extra hours of time to research problem cases or to learn and master new techniques. That means many will just burn out and stop making the extra effort. They'll collect their mandated salaries and do the minimum that's required -- so the care people receive only meets that basic standard.

      The ACA did eliminate "lifetime caps" on insurance policies, BTW. But that's never been the situation until Obama enacted that change - and it's far from a certainty it won't revert back again. Insurance companies are businesses who need to turn profits like any other businesses. It may or may not be sustainable for them to pay unlimited dollar amounts out for care. Almost every other form of insurance I can think of has limits on payouts for things. When your car is wrecked and it costs too much to repair, they declare it totaled out and pay that value instead. They don't just pay "whatever it takes" to repair it again, no matter what....

      There are all KINDS of reforms that we could do in America to improve the healthcare situation. I don't think a blanket idea of going to government-paid healthcare for all is the "best answer". A lot of money is lost to fraudulent claims that aren't investigated as well as they should be. A lot of money is lost thanks to the FDA protecting big pharma with patent protections I don't think are called for, given the nature of what they produce and sell. A lot of money is lost with malpractice suits and the threat of them costing doctors big $'s to cover themselves from them. Funny how for hundreds of pages of ACA "reform", they never even touched the aspect of legal reform.... I'd like to see more hospitals simply enact policies of a free do-over if a doctor misdiagnoses a person or a surgery fails to fix a problem. Make it a more customer-friendly system, and they'd save a bundle on needless lawsuits that raise costs of care.

    19. Re:Equality by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      Here in Canada when people die waiting for care, it makes the news very quickly.

      No one is suggesting that you 'copy cat' anything. Using a real functional example as a model for your own system is not the same as 'copy catting'. No one says the Canadian system is perfect either, it just sounds a heck of a lot better than the American solution. I would hope you identify the issues and fix them for your own system, at the very least.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    20. Re:Equality by jeff4747 · · Score: 1

      Single-payer is ONE way to handle the idea of "healthcare for all", but it runs completely counter to the principles the USA was founded on.

      A federal standing army is also completely counter to the principles the USA was founded on. Wanna eliminate the DoD?

      One of the principles the country was founded on was adaptation. We put in a system that can and does change the roles of government over the years. This is just another adaptation to the modern world. Medical care in 1789 wasn't all that expensive, and it is now. Dealing with that requires a change.

      Apparently, you don't grasp the difference between people who VOLUNTARILY opt to do some work for free, for the benefit of others, and those who are forced to work under a system where government mandates they be paid a fixed pay rate, no matter how good a level of care they do (or don't) provide?

      Apparently you don't grasp that a reimbursement rate is not the same as the maximum allowable rate.

      Doctors in Canada can charge whatever they want. The government will pay them $X. If they want to charge $2X, they are free to do so and their patients can pay the difference out-of-pocket.

      And no, it's VERY clear that most nations in the world offering forms of single-payer or "universal" healthcare are NOT pulling off "providing the best care possible to everyone"!

      Life expectancy in all of them is higher than in the US.

      They're providing a mixed bag of generally mediocre levels of care, often with long wait times to see a specialist.

      I need eye surgery. I won't be able to get it for 3 months. According to your assertion, this isn't possible in the US, because that wait time only happens under single-payer systems.

      because a large percentage of people doing the work aren't that motivated to do as good a job as possible.

      Then show me the massive pile of dead Canadians.....oh wait, they live longer than we do.

      They're not properly rewarded for going above and beyond, putting in a lot of extra hours of time to research problem cases or to learn and master new techniques.

      The countries leading the way on cancer treatment care China and Cuba.

      The ACA did eliminate "lifetime caps" on insurance policies, BTW. But that's never been the situation until Obama enacted that change

      Good thing you brought up lifetime caps as a thing that still exists then! Oh wait....

      and it's far from a certainty it won't revert back again

      It's far from a certainty that the 55mph national speed limit won't revert back again. No law is permanent. But you make policy based on the laws that exist, not based on what might happen in Ann Coulter's dreams.

      Insurance companies are businesses who need to turn profits like any other businesses.

      And that is why they need to be eliminated from health care.

      Health care can not be an efficient market. The consumers can not have enough information to make an informed purchasing decision - "is that test really necessary? All you need is 7 years of full-time training to find out". The consumer is also not at all in a position to drive costs down - "Nah, I'll wait on treatment for my heart attack until you're running a sale".

      Even if we ignore those, the vast majority are unable to choose their insurance company and thus their providers. They get the insurance company that did the best job bribing the HR department.

      Since the market can not be efficient, we can not rely on efficient markets to govern the market. It must be governed externally. Just like the market for firefighting must be governed externally.

      When your car is wrecked and it costs too much to repair, they declare it totaled out and pay that value instead. They don't just pay "whate

    21. Re:Equality by srichard25 · · Score: 1

      "And >90% of the time, those rich people got their wealth from their parents,"

      citation needed

      "For example, Trump."

      Trump is an extreme outlier, not the norm. Using him as an example in this discussion is pretty silly.

      "The wealthy give their children many advantages that put them ahead within that framework. Again, this means we get massive inefficiency because the person didn't actually make the effort, mom and dad bought their place."

      People wealthy enough to give their children a significant money advantage make up a very small part of our population. Households making more than $250k per year only make up 3% of our population: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United_States
      And $250k isn't even "rich" in some parts of the country. Your "massive inefficiency" is confined to less than 3% of the population. It's an extreme outlier that in no way reflects the norm.

    22. Re:Equality by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So they don't know what the hell they are doing and go bankrupt running a casino. Twice.

      Trump bankrupted FOUR casinos. Not two.

  3. Class warfare for nerds by SlaveToTheGrind · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I suppose "Cancer death rates plummeting" might not have generated quite as many clicks.

    Come on, editors. You're better than this.

    1. Re: Class warfare for nerds by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Its autism you racist

    2. Re:Class warfare for nerds by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Shut it cunt lips.

    3. Re:Class warfare for nerds by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or, perhaps, the thrust of the story is how the rich live longer thanks to better healthcare that they are working to deny to the rest of us.

      Stop being an apologist for the 1%.

    4. Re:Class warfare for nerds by Kohath · · Score: 0

      Come on, editors. You're better than this.

      They're actually not.

      What kind of person looks at cancer deaths being significantly down and thinks:

      This is a bad sign because we want cancer to kill different people than it does. We wish there was a way to weaponize cancer in the fight against our fellow countrymen.

      There’s a sort-of manic desperation to spend money other people earned. It turns otherwise good people into haters. They should give it up. They'd have the chance to experience positivity again. Maybe even be happy once in a while.

    5. Re:Class warfare for nerds by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 1

      I suppose "Cancer death rates plummeting" might not have generated quite as many clicks.

      Come on, editors. You're better than this.

      They are?

    6. Re:Class warfare for nerds by alvinrod · · Score: 1

      Who's denying you or I this healthcare? I think what you meant to say is that there are a lot of people who can't afford it. Are the rich working to deny us a Lamborghini as well?

      Like automobiles, cell phones, and other things once considered luxury items for the wealthy, new forms of treatment will become more affordable and more available over time.

    7. Re:Class warfare for nerds by ceoyoyo · · Score: 1

      They are. Here's the graph from the actual report that breaks it down by rich and poor:

      https://wol-prod-cdn.literatum...

    8. Re:Class warfare for nerds by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      The difference is that a Lamborghini is an optional part of life and life itself isn't. Pretty disgusting actually that you think the two are a valid comparison.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    9. Re:Class warfare for nerds by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What's sad is that if you reverse the roles, it much more accurately reflects reality. The wealthy want the poor sick and dying. It has been expressed by many, many/strong wealthy people, verbally and symbolically, more times than anyone can count, and the only people that aren't aware of it tend to be flat earthers and moon landing hoaxers when they aren't licking boots. Anyone with a semi-working brain can figure this out.

      Perhaps if the wealthy would stop deriding the poorer people who allow them to maintain their wealthy lifestyle without guillotines equalizing everything as it so often has in the past, and allow just a fraction of that wealth they literally sit on (close to $40 trillion that we can account for via public records in private offshore accounts, and that's just Americans) to help others, they would generate more goodwill and positivity will foster naturally.

      It's hard to be positive when there are folks intentionally sabotaging your health and well-being in order to keep you subservient, and you literally have to be retarded to not know that's happening.

    10. Re:Class warfare for nerds by Kohath · · Score: 1

      Regardless of any of that, spending money other people earned isn't the answer. Nor is wallowing in hatred.

  4. Re:How dare those well-off do better! by fluffernutter · · Score: 1, Insightful

    The Canadian health care system makes a good enough model for Americans.

    --
    Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
  5. Re: How dare those well-off do better! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The is progressives just make borderline stupid comments about rapists hating blacks. Dont stop

  6. Health insurance by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Having health insurance doesnt mean you have access to healthcare... it means you have access to excuses.

    "Call our 800 number any time for a list of excuses why your treatments wont be covered. And dont forget to thank your employer for the thousands of dollars of free money the send us every month... what a bunch of suckers those guys are!"

    1. Re:Health insurance by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      Tell me again why I'd want that system over here in Europe? Seriously, your healthcare system sucks and blows at the same time. When I need medical treatment, I go to a doctor or hospital because I KNOW that it's covered.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    2. Re: Health insurance by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're guaranteed to get screwed in America.

    3. Re: Health insurance by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      I must have missed that being part of the unalienable rights part in the declaration of independence.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    4. Re: Health insurance by arth1 · · Score: 1

      What does the Declaration of Independence have to do with anything?

      The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, article 25 states: "Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services."

      It's ironic that this part, which in large parts was drafted by Eleanor Roosevelt, is so blatantly disregarded by a single western country, the United States of America.

    5. Re:Health insurance by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Maybe it's time for national health insurance also in the US? No unnecessary cosmetic operations, prescribed medications may be changed to generic drugs in the pharmacy, you may still need to pay little bills that come from the mail box, and if using private healthcare for covered operations, you may need to pay from the pocket first before applying for compensation.. But all life-threatening conditions should be covered by default at least. And the US can join an agreement for international compensation transfer (that at least works in Europe) for the bills so that foreigners with an international health insurance card can have their applicable costs billed directly from their national healthcare insurances.

    6. Re: Health insurance by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      Yeah, the US ain't what they used to be.

      Ya know, when I was young, the US was THE country. Anything and everything came there first. If you wanted to know where the world is heading, look over there. Anything you'll have in 10 years, they already do.

      Today it's more something we look at if we need to feel better about ourselves, since, well, we might not be doing too well anymore, but at least we're not the US.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    7. Re: Health insurance by Dragonslicer · · Score: 1

      I would definitely put "getting screwed" under "pursuit of happiness".

    8. Re: Health insurance by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      If you're a bottom that might be great, but I prefer screwing to being screwed.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  7. No Way by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Everybody knows the true cancer to america is the wealthy !
    That and the silly rednecks we were brought up to cilivity standards by the wealthy to subdue the middle class.

  8. For the wealthy, or the ones able to identify BS? by Opportunist · · Score: 0

    If you look at the amount of bullshit "cures" being peddled that allegedly cure cancer, I have to wonder if it's correlated with money or the fact that fools and their money usually don't spend much time together and it's mostly idiots that gravitate to some "alternative cancer cures"...

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  9. Can we please get Soylent Green factories? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The poor should not have to suffer with cancer. Instead, they should quickly be made into Soylent Green for everyone to enjoy.

  10. Nuclear workers by goombah99 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    One group with low rates of cancers are people who work in the nuclear industry or on navy ships. They don't have shocking better healthcare plans than most middleclass folks so it may not just be wealth buying better health care. One guess is that by the nature of the work they are industrious people self selected to have otherwise healthy lifestyles but even studies trying to control for that still find lower cancer rates. Another possibility of course is that low level nuclear radiation is good for you. Since life evolved in a higher radiation level environment than today, it might not be shocking if multi-cellular animals figured out some way to differentially profit from radiation over their single cell parasites. But that's a stretch too. An even more likely hypothesis is apparently nuclear material environments actually are less toxic than others. That too would not be surprising since Nuclear is all about safety and avoiding accidents so hazards are controlled carefully. A final hypothesis remaining is that it's not that bad for you in low doses compared to the variability in life itself.

    --
    Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
    1. Re:Nuclear workers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Or perhaps the extra radiation causes a lot of minor unnoticeable cancer growths, effectively training the immune system to work against cancer better, a bit like vaccination works?

    2. Re:Nuclear workers by spitzak · · Score: 3, Insightful

      How about due to increased cancer tests and screening of the workers? Also wondering if cancer gets you reassigned out of that area. The radiation released (unless the is an accident) is lower than natural sources so I don't think it is possible this is a direct result of radiation.

    3. Re:Nuclear workers by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 1

      Or maybe they don't get much radiation and the job is otherwise low-risk for cancer.

      --
      (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
    4. Re:Nuclear workers by Ungrounded+Lightning · · Score: 2

      One group with low rates of cancers are people who work in the nuclear industry or on navy ships. ... Another possibility of course is that low level nuclear radiation is good for you.

      I wouldn't assume that the level of ongoing, background, exposure to radiation is higher for nuclear workers than the general population. Nuclear workers are in an environment where nuclear exposure is carefully monitored and minimized, while the general population is, or has been, wandering around radiation-blind and unmonitored among various threats. Having said that...

      It has been known for decades that small increases in ongoing background ionizing radiation actually reduce cancer rates.

      As I recall this came up in studies looking for a higher cancer rate among residents of higher altitude sites, such as Denver, where the background radiation was slightly higher due to things like more secondary cosmics. The studies, surprisingly, showed a lower, rather than a higher, cancer rate.

      One theory to explain the effect was that the effects of background radiation was detected by the cellular machinery, which responded by increasing the production of (nutritionally expensive) protective molecules, such as free-radical scavengers, overcorrecting, not just for the mutagenic effects of higher radiation levels, but also increasing protection from the (much larger) exposure to the free radicals produced by metabolism.

      This is what you might expect if, for instance, the detector(s) of the free radicals, damage, etc. were more loosely coupled to the nuclear DNA than the protective molecule production/delivery. Like an air conditioned house with the cold air vents at the center and the thermostat near the outer wall, with the center getting colder when the outside temperature gets hotter.

      Raise the ongoing background radiation enough, though, and the limits of the inducible enzyme production are hit. Beyond that the cancer rate does go up as you'd expect.

      Of course it wouldn't do squat for intermittent pulse exposures such as medical X-rays, or for people in whom the mechanism is defective or already maxed-out.

      --
      Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
    5. Re: Nuclear workers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      More growths? That must be the most ignorant thing I'll read this week. Radiation impacts are well studied and nothing of the sort has ever been even remotely observed.

      But hey, making shit up serves its purpose, right?

    6. Re:Nuclear workers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      One group with low rates of cancers are people who work in the nuclear industry or on navy ships

      I'm curious of the ratio of Navy personnel to nuclear industry personnel in the survey. Naval personnel tend to be young, cannot be obese, exercise daily, have limited hours in which they can smoke or drink, and wear uniforms to protect themselves from the sun. This eliminates a lot of other known risk factors for cancer.

    7. Re:Nuclear workers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Citation needed

    8. Re: Nuclear workers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well yes, everything man-made is less radioactive than natural sources. Take the sun for example.

    9. Re: Nuclear workers by spitzak · · Score: 1

      Not sure what you are saying, but man can easily make a far more radioactive object than a natural object, including a similar-sized piece of the sun.

      The reason the workers are exposed to less radiation is because of the shielding put around the reactor (overkill for normal operation as it is supposed to protect things in case of an accident), plus the fact that they are inside a building or ship and thus also shielded from more natural sources.

    10. Re: Nuclear workers by Aighearach · · Score: 1

      Ever hear of a tanning salon?!

    11. Re: Nuclear workers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What about: being in extra-radiation hard envirinments is also shielding then extra from cosmic radiation, so they have fewer cancers?

  11. Is this a good thing? by bigtech · · Score: 2

    Growth in cancer doesn't necessarily mean an increase in cancer, it means a decrease in other causes of death. So, a decrease in cancer might indicate increases in other, presumably preventable ways to die. Another way to put it is, that if you remove all the other causes of death you'd still be left with cancer.

    1. Re:Is this a good thing? by arth1 · · Score: 1

      Also, increased cancer screening doesn't reduce cancer as the summary incorrectly states. Increased screening increases cancer cases on statistics, because a non-zero segment of the population will be found to have cancer but die of other causes. If it weren't found, it would never have showed up in the statistics.
      It reduces deaths from cancer, which is a different thing altogether than reducing cancer, as the summary incorrectly assumes was meant.

      Anyhow, if we live long enough, all of us will get cancer. It's unavoidable given how our cells reproduce and our DNA ages. There's no evolutionary benefit to making us live far beyond the age of fertility and child rearing, and more benefits to letting us die to not compete for resources with our own offspring. I.e. cancer that hits late in life is good for our genes.

  12. Cancer going away for wealthy soon by monkeyxpress · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I have a friend who works in oncology (he is a surgeon). He basically said that immunotherapy is incredible, and within 5 years he believes that those with enough money will be treated for many types of cancer by customised immunotherapy. They will go in every two weeks and a team will adjust the therapy based on the cancer's response until the cancer is gone. Add to this the work being done on early detection, and cancer could soon become nothing more than a strain on your bank account.

    Everyone else will continue to get cut, burn and poison. Having said that, this is how the economy has always progressed, and in 20 years when patents have run out and the treatments have become more mature, we can all look forward to this sort of thing.

    Certainly an exciting time to be alive.

    1. Re:Cancer going away for wealthy soon by geekmux · · Score: 1

      I have a friend who works in oncology (he is a surgeon). He basically said that immunotherapy is incredible, and within 5 years he believes that those with enough money will be treated for many types of cancer by customised immunotherapy. They will go in every two weeks and a team will adjust the therapy based on the cancer's response until the cancer is gone. Add to this the work being done on early detection, and cancer could soon become nothing more than a strain on your bank account.

      Everyone else will continue to get cut, burn and poison. Having said that, this is how the economy has always progressed, and in 20 years when patents have run out and the treatments have become more mature, we can all look forward to this sort of thing.

      Certainly an exciting time to be alive.

      It's certainly an exciting time to be alive if you're rich.

      Seems you forgot that rather important caveat, which is hard to believe since your entire post was centered around the fact that cancer could be reduced to "nothing more" than a $500,000 expense in the near future. Needless to say, those who can't afford that will die, which is still the overwhelming majority of humans.

      And customized immunotherapy will most likely be designed so treatments will never end. If you can afford treatments, you can afford a lifetime subscription to them. THAT is how the Greed within the Medical Industrial Complex works. There are no more cures, only perpetual treatments.

    2. Re:Cancer going away for wealthy soon by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 1

      At least it (is about to) exist, so that's better than nothing. Costs will get wrung out, insurance rates go up to pay for it and so on.

      The choice isn't between new expensive treatments and new cheap trestments. It's between new expensive treatments and no, or greatly delayed treatments.

      As with the latest iPhone, so too, medicine. You want this to drag into existence new wonders, both for medicine and consumer electronics (and everything else) and as rapidly as possible. This swamps all other considerations as it compounds over years and decades, delays in invention causing the most deaths by far.

      Your whine is how do we roll it out to everybody. Murdering the profit motive murders yourself.

      --
      (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
    3. Re: Cancer going away for wealthy soon by houghi · · Score: 1

      Nice for those who die in the next 20 years after going in to late, just because they did not have the money.

      And I am sure that the price will only go up, not down, as with plenty of treatment s and drugs in the US.

      Either you kid looses a parent, or it will suffer, because all money went to reatment.

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    4. Re:Cancer going away for wealthy soon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And you seem to have missed the part where, when the rich have paid for the R&D, the treatment comes off patent and is available to the majority of the population.

    5. Re:Cancer going away for wealthy soon by geekmux · · Score: 1

      And you seem to have missed the part where, when the rich have paid for the R&D, the treatment comes off patent and is available to the majority of the population.

      I fail to see your point here. At all. You and I both know the total cost of eradicating cancer in a human far exceeds any argument related to patents expiring on drugs, which is akin to being handed a 10% off coupon on your cancer bill.

      And when medical error ends up killing as many Americans as cigarettes do, I question the actual value of R&D no matter who is paying for it.

    6. Re:Cancer going away for wealthy soon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's certainly an exciting time to be alive if you're rich.

      Dude, it's never a good time to be poor.

      If you're poor and you aren't doing anything about it, that's not my problem.
      Are you insinuating that I should give a shit about poor people in crappy countries like India, or any country in Africa?

      I don't.

    7. Re:Cancer going away for wealthy soon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Someone has to create these drugs and they are not doing it out of charity.

    8. Re:Cancer going away for wealthy soon by ceoyoyo · · Score: 1

      Immunotherapy is incredible. Someday in the not too distant future you will go into the hospital for treatment, they'll create an antibody tailored to kill whatever is causing the problem (cancer, out of whack immune cells, whatever) and you'll be fixed. It's currently hideously expensive, far too expensive for even billionaires to afford that kind of personalized care, but improved design techniques are likely to make it much cheaper. You-could-do-it-in-your-garage kind of cheap.

    9. Re:Cancer going away for wealthy soon by geekmux · · Score: 1

      Your whine is how do we roll it out to everybody. Murdering the profit motive murders yourself.

      Murder? I wonder if you are you aware that medical error kills almost as many Americans every year as tobacco does. The very industry who purports to save lives should not also be one of Americas leading causes of death, and yet it is. Pretty sad when you have to weigh the risks of entering a hospital against whatever malady is driving you there. Are cancer treatments more about saving lives or making money? Since you or I cannot easily answer that question, you know why we should question motive.

      Regardless if people want to believe or accept it, death is by design, and supported by government. I'm glad you identified the motive properly as "profit", because saving lives comes secondary in this particular corner of capitalism The best way we can "murder" the profit motive is to support research as to what causes so much cancer in the world today, and look to eradicate those causes as a more permanent fix instead of simply dismissing cancer as some kind of human inevitability. The problem with my logical approach is it's not profitable or deadly enough. As I said before, death is by design, and supported by government, which is also the reason a cure for cancer will never be allowed to see the light of day. Perpetuating death and profits are far more important.

    10. Re:Cancer going away for wealthy soon by geekmux · · Score: 1

      Someone has to create these drugs and they are not doing it out of charity.

      On the flip side, someone is also profiting from selling the many causes of cancer, but oddly I don't see much research going into eradicating that.

      We've gone from trying to cure cancer to now marketing cancer as some kind of human inevitability. Cancer existed in 1 out of 100 humans a century ago. Yes, I understand advancements in cancer research and detection has obviously affected that statistic, but it's now down to 1 in 3, and we blindly accept this, and pour trillions into the Cancer Industrial Complex without addressing root-cause at all? Sorry, but that's bullshit. We have questioned for a long damn time now if cancer is too profitable to cure. That question sure as hell hasn't diminished, so you're damn right I'm going to question motive. The worst kind of cancer in society is the one that puts profits over lives every time.

    11. Re:Cancer going away for wealthy soon by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      ...also if you a citizen of a single payer nation.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    12. Re:Cancer going away for wealthy soon by RPI+Geek · · Score: 1

      I fail to see your point here. At all.

      OK, let me try to make an analogy.

      The first commercially-available computer was the UNIVAC I priced at $159,000 in 1951 ($1.5M 2018 dollars). Compare that cost to the computer you're using now. ANY new technology starts prohibitively high-cost and decreases as the state of the art improves, or patents expire, or competition increases.

      It's a shame that cancer treatments are so expensive, and it's a shame that the costs aren't decreasing more quickly, but that's how it is.

      --

      - "Nobody came out that night, not one was ever seen. But Old Man Stauf is waiting there, crazy sick and mean!"
    13. Re:Cancer going away for wealthy soon by geekmux · · Score: 1

      I fail to see your point here. At all.

      OK, let me try to make an analogy.

      The first commercially-available computer was the UNIVAC I priced at $159,000 in 1951 ($1.5M 2018 dollars). Compare that cost to the computer you're using now. ANY new technology starts prohibitively high-cost and decreases as the state of the art improves, or patents expire, or competition increases.

      It's a shame that cancer treatments are so expensive, and it's a shame that the costs aren't decreasing more quickly, but that's how it is.

      Your analogy is invalid for one very obvious reason; the price of treating cancer is not going to decrease to any reasonable level that still doesn't amount to financial death for 99.999% of humans. Ever. You know this, and so do I. This is also the reason we'll never cure cancer.

      And competition is not the goal; eradicating it via patents is. Sure patents will eventually expire, but your insurance company isn't going to support those "old" patent-expired treatments anymore, because the Cancer Industrial Complex will lobby and push insurance companies to only support the latest treatments (a.k.a the most profitable ones), so even patent expiration is a moot point.

      And it's not just a "shame" that cancer treatments are so expensive and will not get cheaper, it's a damn crime. But it's by design, because governments need both deaths and profits to occur. All the time. Otherwise, we're left dealing with yet another growing problem in the world; overpopulation.

    14. Re:Cancer going away for wealthy soon by RPI+Geek · · Score: 1

      Your analogy is invalid for one very obvious reason...

      *sigh* OK, the analogy isn't perfect. I was simply trying to illustrate by example the principle that expensive new technology tends to get cheaper with time. It's true that we may never cure all cancers but I firmly believe that the available treatments will get better and dramatically cheaper given enough time.

      the price of treating cancer is not going to decrease to any reasonable level ...

      You clearly have more thoughts on this issue, but we'll have to agree to disagree with one another. I trying to help you see GP's point, not debate the merits of his argument.

      --

      - "Nobody came out that night, not one was ever seen. But Old Man Stauf is waiting there, crazy sick and mean!"
    15. Re:Cancer going away for wealthy soon by SirMasterboy · · Score: 1

      I'm fairly certain we have standard cheap treatments available to virtually anyone with basic health insurance today that could have only been afforded by a multimillionaire 50 years ago.

      Why wouldn't that sort of progression continue to happen?

    16. Re:Cancer going away for wealthy soon by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      And if we gave them free healthcare, it would still be bad to be poor so you don't have to worry about anyone one-upping your social status.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    17. Re:Cancer going away for wealthy soon by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      Like any kind of anesthetic, for example.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    18. Re:Cancer going away for wealthy soon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And customized immunotherapy ... only perpetual treatments.

      Ah, yes. The "I'm paranoid so it might happen. Then I'll reinforce my point by making personal opinion statements as if they were fact." argument. And just to show how right I am, I'll randomly capitalize in a key phrase.

    19. Re:Cancer going away for wealthy soon by Oligonicella · · Score: 1

      Cancer existed in 1 out of 100 humans a century ago.

      Yeah, no. "Read up. "Anti-cancer drugs made their entrance in the 1940s."(from second) Very nice step-by-step timeline of all the milestones in the second.

      We simply detect much more of it earlier and are more successful in the treatment now.

    20. Re:Cancer going away for wealthy soon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      monkeyexpress your 'certaintly an exciting time to be alive' made me tear up. You are 100% correct about that. I was diagnosed with clear cell renal caricoma in 2018, dont smoke dont do anything im just a standard nerd. after some surgery with a divinci robot, they think they cut it all out. They are big on regular screening, which is my treatment right now and all im going through at this time. I never thought about cancer before and now it is on my mind all the time, I constantly worry that its coming back, how i got it in the first place, how am i being exposed to known carcinogens, what foods have been shown to combat certain cancers etc. its just a worry now. Posts like yours keep me positive about it, and calm me down. im only in my 40s and dont want to die of cancer i have two young girls under 10 who think i am better than i am. I appreciate your post very much, thank you.

    21. Re:Cancer going away for wealthy soon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      the price of treating cancer is not going to decrease to any reasonable level that still doesn't amount to financial death for 99.999% of humans. Ever. You know this, and so do I. This is also the reason we'll never cure cancer.

      It already has. Many cancers that were death sentences fifty years ago are treatable now, and often on a middle-class family's budget. Not all cancers, and not all incomes, but for several orders of magnitude more than your 0.001%.

    22. Re:Cancer going away for wealthy soon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Kiddo, murdering the "profit motive" does nothing. There is still research going on around the world, typically far beyond the capabilities of US medicine. Murdering the profit motive, at best, guarantees your children and probably grandchildren will have to agree to be enslaved to possibly have access to this treatment for their children or grandchildren.

      I'm sorry you suck at recognizing patterns, I'm paid good money to do exactly that. If you could do the same, I'm certain you wouldn't hold such laughable beliefs.

    23. Re:Cancer going away for wealthy soon by strikethree · · Score: 1

      You are way too optimistic. I see this going the way of software and having a Microsoft Cancer treatment that is shitty and kills lots of people but there are no other alternatives available because they have a death-grip on the most important aspects of the market.

      --
      "Someone needs to talk to the tree of liberty about its ghoulish drinking problem." by ohnocitizen
  13. Re:How dare those well-off do better! by Opportunist · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Venezuela? Nah. Sweden. Germany. France. Austria. That's more like it.

    I know Venezuela is the poster child for "socialism" for the "I got mine, screw you" crowd, but from over here you look like some sort of one-joke clown.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  14. How dare poor people get what they paid for by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I was paying $100's a month for health insurance that covered exactly nothing, zilch, nada. I never once found anything that it actually paid for.

    My new policy has the exact same coverage and costs 100% less.

  15. Re:Not possible by Opportunist · · Score: 1

    Wasn't Obamacare taken back by the current administration?

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  16. Deaths, not cancer by Larry+Lightbulb · · Score: 2

    Cancer is being detected and treated at earlier stages, so it's possible to have a similarly misleading title that says Cancer in America is Way Up. What the story is really about is that deaths from cancer is falling, particularly for people who can afford better treatment, which often requires time away from work.

    1. Re:Deaths, not cancer by ceoyoyo · · Score: 1

      No, it's not. Because cancer incidence and mortality rates are way down. In an absolute sense, in everybody, rich and poor. Everything else is quibbling about whether this line is down *more* than that line.

    2. Re:Deaths, not cancer by Vitriol+Angst · · Score: 1

      I'm always unsure of the stat of improvement for this reason; Cancer "survival" is measured as years after detection of the disease. So if you have earlier detection -- you have a longer survival rate. The REAL stat we need is; at what age do people die, on average, from Cancer? If the rich and poor die on average about the same age that they always have, that tells you that we've progressed on early detection, and have done bupkiss for Cancer. Having less access to get a diagnosis and an expensive placebo might be OK. But the opposite may be true and we would see wealthy people surviving because they got early treatment -- their life expectancy would be much higher.

      The only thing we can conclude so far is that poor people don't get cancer screenings as much.

      --
      >>"ad space available -- low rates!!!"
    3. Re: Deaths, not cancer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Deaths are not reduced much, just posponed. Better treatments delay deaths. With current increases of treatments death rates are down. In the years after they will reach normal again when people die who would usually have died this year.

  17. Re:Not possible by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Nope. John McCain voted to keep it.

    DNC, spends $1 Trillion on Obamacare, which is an obvious failure that the Congress is not required to follow because they know it.
    DNC then refuses to spend $5 Billion on a wall to stop illegal immigration, citing it doesn't work. They live in gated communities surrounded by walls that they know work.

    DNC, looking for new ways to fuck over the middle class since 1848.

  18. Re:For the wealthy, or the ones able to identify B by Larry+Lightbulb · · Score: 1

    I was told, in all seriousness, that my cancer was caused by wheat and I should stop eating bread rather than having surgery and chemo.

  19. Re:For the wealthy, or the ones able to identify B by Opportunist · · Score: 1

    I hope it wasn't someone who one would usually take serious when they say bullshit like that.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  20. Smoking by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'll bet you a lot of money both the reduction in cancer, and the disparity between income levels is because of smoking. Poor people just smoke in higher numbers. If you're middle class it's totally uncool to smoke. Not as much if you're working class.

    Frankly, this is good news. It just means we need to do a better job at reducing smoking rates among working class people.

  21. Canada has private insurance by KalvinB · · Score: 1

    Canada allows people to enter the private market for health insurance because they found it was against human rights to force people to only have a government option.

    The rich are always better off. Trying to make life more difficult for them just compounds on those who don't have the money.

    1. Re:Canada has private insurance by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      On the contrary, life is easier in a single payer system. You don't need to worry about shopping for insurance.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    2. Re:Canada has private insurance by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Of course there is a private market as well. Nobody except retarded right wingers ever try to argue that private insurance is completely replaced by single payer. The benefit is that not everyone IS FORCED to pay exorbitant amounts for insurance. There is an option that will keep them healthy, and incentivize them to get preventative care. And if you want to waste your money on 24k gold bedpans? By all means, you know what they say about a fool and his money :)

    3. Re:Canada has private insurance by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This weird "single-payer" talk must be confusing and distracting for any right winger. Either there is a national insurance with the numerous private options, or there is only the private option. Doing otherwise might be unconstitutional in most countries respecting the freedom of livelihood. Both options can independently have a public healthcare system in addition to the private, an outsourced care with public funding or only private providers. This complexity is what probably causes the knee-jerk reactions in the discussions about healthcare.

  22. Re:How dare those well-off do better! by GregMmm · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Wow, you have got to be kidding me! Canada? Yup, they have it right. Just like my friends Grandma who was told by the very same Canadian health care system: Yes you have cancer, but according to the Canadian government you're too old to start treatments. Here is a bunch of pain pills. Please go home and die, and that is just what she did.

    Oh it's the evil insurance companies... wait it's the evil doctors making all the money, uh it's the evil.... Government. In Canada the one stop shop for your medical needs. Can't blame anyone else.

    Yes this is a true story. You should see my friend deliver it. You would be a bit bitter too if this is how your Grandma was treated.

  23. Right, cuz getting paid by a third party = slavery by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And highly trained medical staff shouldn't be forced into slavery, to take care of every health issue for people who can't or won't pay anything for it. So what do you do?

    You stop setting up strawmen, and creating false dichotomies where none exist.

    Even in the most socialized medical systems, Doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals are paid, generally quite well for whatever country they are in. Maybe not "I'll buy myself a second Beech Bonanza (aka "Doctor Killer")" or "I'll take that yacht" kind of well paid, but certainly well enough.

    They're paid, not expected to work for free, so you're false statement that any kind of universal access to medical care irrespective of means does not equal slavery, nor does getting paid by the government, rather than some for-profit conglomerate. Unless of course your Republican president is unable to pass a budget with a Republican controlled congress and you decide to arbitrarily shut down the government because the pundits on Fox made you feel insecure. Then you could make the argument that those government employees required to work without pay are enslaved, but that's a completely different issue.

    We are the only industrialized, so-called "first world" country (I say "so-called" because the rest of the "first world" has progressed and moved on while we've stagnated and moved backwards, so by comparison we are more similar in our quality of living to third world countries than we are, say, to Europe or Japan, especially when it comes to medicine and other basic services.

    But nice try. "We should let the poor die because to do otherwise is to enslave doctors" is an argument that works quite well with the right, but then, so does "I've got a nice Wall I'd like to sell you for $25 Billion, but I promise Mexico will pay you back because I said so!" so I that's not saying much either.

  24. Also ignores the fact... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That those three mentioned kinds of cancer are due to the following:

    Cervical Cancer: Promiscuity, likely via HPV infections.
    Colon Cancer: Same but for gay men, and red meat eaters.
    Lung Cancer: Hello, smoking, mining, air pollution.

    And we now know why so many rural folk are dying of cancer.

    1. Re:Also ignores the fact... by arth1 · · Score: 1

      And we now know why so many rural folk are dying of cancer.

      Predominantly because rural folk get older than in the past, and with age comes cancer.

    2. Re:Also ignores the fact... by Oligonicella · · Score: 1

      Yes. People tend to 'debate' these things as if they occur in isolation. We see more cancer because we've (mostly) wiped polio, tuberculosis, whooping cough, measles, flu (again mostly), pneumonia and many other killers. What we have left is basically what we haven't conquered - cancer.

  25. Social Darwinists rejoice! by bussdriver · · Score: 1

    Slowing winning the battle to misunderstand and misapply basic science into a political philosophy... because it fits the belief in a meritocracy measured by wealth, which happens to largely be generational. We have to keep maintaining the status quo, can't destabilize those with the wealth.

    Never mind the evolved tribalism and social skills that were proven successful, lets literally act like Neanderthals despite that their nuclear family approach led them to extinction despite larger brains.

    Rationing healthcare is better when you have limited resources; everybody in an emergency survival situation does rationing after the group deals with the anti-social pricks... since humans scale poorly, it gets more difficult to manage; as the anti-social cliche villains end up banding together to create a gang (which is a weaker social group dependent upon exploiting others to limit internal strife; being made up of anti-socials... The rational tends towards rank by power to justify external behaviors and is likely applied within the group too.) Just my observation.

  26. edited correctoin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Sigh. Never post before your first coffee.

    "We are the only industrialized, so-called "first world" country (I say "so-called" because the rest of the "first world" has progressed and moved on while we've stagnated and moved backwards, so by comparison we are more similar in our quality of living to third world countries than we are, say, to Europe or Japan, especially when it comes to medicine and other basic services."

    should read:

    We are the only industrialized, so-called "first world" country not to have universal healthcare (I say "so-called" because the rest of the "first world" has progressed and moved on while we've stagnated and moved backwards, so by comparison we are more similar in our quality of living to third world countries than we are, say, to Europe or Japan, especially when it comes to medicine and other basic services).

    1. Re:edited correctoin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      so by comparison we are more similar in our quality of living to third world countries

      When you import millions of third worlders, you get the third world.

      America isn't magic fucking dirt, you tool.

  27. Fake News Headline or Trolling Editor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The article is actually about the reduced rate of death from cancer, not that cancer occurrence is down.

  28. Smoking is also down for the wealthy by NeoMorphy · · Score: 2

    Isn't there supposed to be a link between cigarettes and cancer? Stop buying cigarettes and you will be healthier with more money. Win win

    1. Re:Smoking is also down for the wealthy by rlauzon · · Score: 1

      Lower wealth people tend to smoke more (which is part of why they have lower wealth - tobacco products aren't cheap).

    2. Re:Smoking is also down for the wealthy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      People who smoke should be denied health care no matter what their age.

      Only vegetarians who exercise regularly, don't smoke and don't drink alcohol should be eligible for health care.

    3. Re:Smoking is also down for the wealthy by mlyle · · Score: 1

      You're right. And this is a key reason why minorities and the lowest 25% of incomes are dying more of cancer: incidence in the poor of cancer is much higher.

      Yes, cancer detection and treatment is better as income increases, but this effect is smaller than you might think. The poor are exposed to so many cancer risk factors, from smoking, ambient air exposure, excessively processed foods, etc, so the baseline risk is significantly higher even before you get to any difference in treatment.

    4. Re:Smoking is also down for the wealthy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      sure, lets deny health care for anyone who engages in any risky behavior, including:

      -driving/cycling
      -having sex
      -going out into the sun

      other than the exercise bit, I think /. should be mostly safe.

    5. Re:Smoking is also down for the wealthy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Lower wealth people tend to suffer much harder problems than wealthy people do; this is objective fact. Smoking is one of the cheapest ways to get a break when you can't just take off to your vacation home somewhere else on a whim. $5 can make you accept the wealthy dick in your ass pretty easily when it comes to smoking, because guess who profits from smoking? Hint: It's incredibly wealthy people.

      There are solutions to poor people problems, but they mostly require billionaires to contribute to the society that doesn't murder them for the extortion they're responsible for that made them billionaires. And in the US, we'd rather suffer in what only we can consider "honor", while dying in droves, while 99% of the world just wonders why we put up with this while we have so many guns in this country.

  29. Re:How dare those well-off do better! by fat+man's+underwear · · Score: 2

    And where did the government get this guideline from? Doctors. Face it, your friend's Grandma probably was too old to endure cancer treatment. We all die.

  30. Re:How dare those well-off do better! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The Canadian health care system makes a good enough model for Americans.

    Says the ignorant one who has likely never had to actually deal with or rely on the fucking Canadian health care system.

    Let's see how your standard of "good enough" works out when it's your loved one who dies because of the lack of timely medical services. The socialist "free" argument tends to lose it's luster when death is the end result.

  31. This cartoon intro explains why by FudRucker · · Score: 1
    --
    Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
  32. Re:How dare those well-off do better! by jellomizer · · Score: 2

    Why do you insist that we only look at the failure implementation of ideas, and not look at successes, especially as the successes are better aligned with the size and wealth of America?
    Look at John Doe, who went bankrupt because he bought a Testla. So if you buy a Testla you will go bankrupt.
    Well John Doe, had other expenses, and didn't make the salary that would allow him to buy a Testla,
    while Jane Doe, has a higher salary and less expenses, so the Testla is a better fit for her, and the saving on gas cost will add to her overall financial health.

    The Venezuela model, had an economy based on high Gas and Oil prices, they were doing rather well while Gas and Oil prices were high, They can insult America as much as they want, because they had oil and the country was wealthy enough to fund social services.
    America has a more diverse economy, We can and have survived complete sectors collapsing. The American Economy can handle a lot of problems and still remain strong. A Universal Health Care system if wisely implemented wouldn't hurt the US and would probably be a net benefit, as we keep keep workers working. Because if someone gets sick, and remains sick because they cannot afford health care, will not be working and in general improving the economy.

    Now we should look at the issues that other countries have and see if they could happen with the US, and see if we can mitigated this problems such as making sure health care systems are competing for your business, and providers are getting paid for performance and make sure they can keep up with demand.

    Universal Medical treatment will cause increase demand, because there are people more willing to seek treatment because before they couldn't afford it, but that needs to be recognized and managed, but not just discredited because it is an issue.

    --
    If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
  33. Re:How dare those well-off do better! by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

    In my family a single person has had cancer twice and another member had a serious autoimmune issue.

    --
    Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
  34. Re:How dare those well-off do better! by whoever57 · · Score: 2

    Just like my friends Grandma who was told by the very same Canadian health care system: Yes you have cancer, but according to the Canadian government you're too old to start treatments.

    That was probably the best option, irrespective of cost. Treatment for cancer may in some cases provide only a very short increase in lifetime (and in some cases, no increase), while destroying quality of life.

    --
    The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
  35. Re:How dare those well-off do better! by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

    The only reason they ever say that is when they feel the treatment would be worse than the effects from the cancer. I knew a person who denied chemo because she couldn't handle it, and she is only in her 60s. Being on chemo is not pretty. Being on radiation is not pretty. You have to have fortitude to go through it.

    --
    Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
  36. preventative medicine costs are way up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    15 years ago my colon medicine was $25 per month -- I was re-assigned to take in again and it is currently $1000 per month -- I don't have that $$$ so I don't get to take that very common medicine which will cause me to get the main issue sooner -- maybe the medical industry received a population purge order?

    1. Re:preventative medicine costs are way up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      no generics for that?

    2. Re:preventative medicine costs are way up by greylion3 · · Score: 1

      For what disease?
      If you haven't heard, most intestinal diseases are due to an imbalance in the gut flora.
      This comes about because of antibiotics killing off certain bacteria in your gut.

      Get a fecal transplant from someone healthy, optimally an athlete, and it goes away.

      --
      Privacy begins with ..
  37. Re:Not possible by jeff4747 · · Score: 4, Informative

    we had to pass the bill to see what was in it

    The bill was available and debated for almost a year.

    Obamacare fixed all of this

    The way the ACA would have fixed this particular problem is Medicaid expansion. Which Republicans sued over. And are blocking in every state they can.

    Why do they lie?

    Why do you?

  38. And that's exactly how the reps want it by ZombieCatInABox · · Score: 0

    The wealthy are getting better medical treatement than the poor, and that's exactly how conservatives want things to be.

    Let's not beat around the bush: Conservatives are social darwinists. When confronted about it, not only are they not denying it, they're actually proud of it. They want social inequality. In their minds, all rich people are smart, deserving, hard working people who make smart decisions in life, and all poor people are stupid, lazy, parasitic slobs who deserve what they get. And every human being on Earth falls neatly into one of those two categories. After all, binary thinking is also a defining trait of the conservative mindset.

    They ignore the possibility that some of those poor, suffering, sick people may be children who are suffering because of their parents situation. And those who acknowlege it, don't care. That's right. They don't care about children suffering and dying. To them, it's in the order of things. Children of rich, wealthy parents should reek the benefits of having been born with a silver spoon in their mouth, therefore perpetuating their parents' good genes/values. Similarly, children of poor parents should suffer and die, putting an end to their parents' bad lineage. Social darwinism.

    Remember: American society wasn't built on the same principles that guide other evolved, advanced societies, it was built on one,and only one, principle: Freedom. And that includes freedom to be a heartless, cold, miserable sack of pus, and to elect one as their president.

    Me personnaly, as far as liberals vs conservatives go, the former may have no brains, but the latter have no heart, and I know exactly which ones I'd rather have as friends.

    1. Re:And that's exactly how the reps want it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I agree with pretty much all of this, except for the "liberals have no brains" part. I'm no liberal, but US liberals are the backbone of America. The conservatives wouldn't get their foodstamps if not for the hardworking liberal. The conservatives wouldn't have any government subsidies they literally depend upon if not for the liberals. That is irrefutably true. Liberals have brains, they just don't use them any further than they have to. And they tend to be conservative enough to not care if their comfort comes at the expense of many people's hardship, which is literally a porn search term for red states.

  39. Re:For the wealthy, or the ones able to identify B by jeff4747 · · Score: 1

    Yes, it's well known that the poor have ample money to pay for high-priced "alternative" medicine out of pocket.

    Oh wait.....

  40. inmates get better medical then poor diabetes is b by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

    inmates get better medical then poor people. If you have diabetes and the GOP cuts off medicaid you may be better off in jail vs only having the ER.

  41. Factors other than healthcare access by jenningsthecat · · Score: 1

    In addition to less access to healthcare, I suspect that people in lower-income groups have additional risk factors. Blue-collar workers and the casually employed are probably more likely to be exposed to higher levels of carcinogens in their workplaces. I would guess that they also, on the average, eat a higher percentage of processed foods such as nitrate-laden meats. And I bet they're less likely to have the same kind of access to fresh fruits and vegetables. Plus, quality and level of education are a factor in the healthfulness of dietary choices.

    In our society all of these factors are fairly-well correlated with economic prosperity. The healthcare gap is important to note and to address, but it shouldn't blind us to other factors in the discrepancy in cancer rates between rich and poor. That's especially so if some of these other factors turn out to be more easily and quickly corrected for.

    --
    'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
  42. Re:For the wealthy, or the ones able to identify B by Opportunist · · Score: 1

    "Alternative" quackery needn't be expensive. You can make a shitload of money by selling bleach, just sell a few milliliters for 10s of dollars (where you buy a few gallons for 5 bucks) and you're set.

    You don't have to sell for a lot if you can sell a lot. All that matters is that you yourself pay pennies for what you sell for dollars.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  43. Don't Forget The "Stupidity" Correlation by kackle · · Score: 1

    Being of a certain age, I just had my first colonoscopy. It was not a pleasant procedure overall, so I can see why many would skip it, despite its life-saving ability (my sister's friend recently died of colon cancer, at my age). I have found that hand-waving-dismissal attitude about health prevalent among the less intelligent I've known.

    1. Re:Don't Forget The "Stupidity" Correlation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This needs to be factored in. Many people who conduct these studies i feel misrepresent the poor as people just like those conducting the study, academically smart people just without means. That is not the case.

      I worked in a very blue collar environment for years; while I had a more white collar desk job there, fully 70% of the employees were hourly construction people numbering several thousand. When I started, I was shocked about how much the orientation focused on the benefits of direct deposit for their check; I was like really? But then I got to know many of the guys there. They distrusted banks, they didn't understand what a check was, and only believed in cash. The company did everything it could to encourage them; had a credit union set up an ATM on-site and offer free checking accounts, paid a day earlier than paper checks, etc. Despite this, 6 mobile check-cashing trucks showed up on paycheck day, charged 7% of their paycheck to get them cash, and guys would wait 30 minutes to cash their check immediately.

      Health is the same way, and it's not just about education. It's cultural. People who are in poorer parts of a society live a different life than affluent people, and that culture creates misconceptions that no amount of incentives can break. Smoking, drug use, unhealthy diets are all much more rampant at the lower end of the socio-economic ladder, and it's not just as simple as they don't have the means, it's a lifestyle of believing you are defeated, of distrusting the system, and of many things, that make the poor make decisions that seem contrary to their own well being. Even free cancer therapeutics and free colonoscopies will not improve their health, because they still need to make the decision to do those things.

  44. Wealthy Eat Real Food by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    The wealthy can afford to eat real food, and a balanced diet including fresh fruits and vegetables. The poor and working class can afford Chef Boyardee and other Monsanto Frankenfood.

    Last time I was at the grocery, a freakin celery bunch was $4. If you're trying to feed your family on minimum wage and no benefits, your $4 is going to buy cheap processed foods with little/no nutritional value - so little in fact that you're going to have to eat 4000 calories/day of it to get the micronutrients you need, which in turn will make you obese, give you diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease, which you won't be able to afford to treat because your minimum wage, 28 hour/week job has no health care benefits and you can't afford a doctor, let alone prescription medications. So, you'll die a slow agonizing death from out-of-control diabetes and colon cancer while your children are saddled with a half million dollars in student loan debt trying to get a degree that will enable them to get a $50k/year job and be indentured to the lender for the rest of their lives, so they can have a little extra money to pay for your burial.

    So yeah, if you're wealthy, you can afford not to die.

    1. Re:Wealthy Eat Real Food by Pinky's+Brain · · Score: 1

      Then don't buy celery ... buy frozen pees, frozen broccoli, dried lentils etc in bulk. Supplement with fresh if it's affordable, or don't, there's enough variety without it.

    2. Re:Wealthy Eat Real Food by iggymanz · · Score: 1

      lies and B.S. Stop spreading nonsense. I take it you don't cook or shop for food.

      You are shopping at the wrong store if celery was $4, more than 3 times what you can get that (lousy choice for nutrition anyway).

      The very cheapest food can be homemade. Processed crap is more expensive.

      Those of us who cook and provide for families know these things.

  45. not so fast... by js290 · · Score: 1

    We all want deaths from #cancer to go down, be 0. But todays @AmericanCancer & media coverage of the 27% reduction is misleading. No data for absolute reduction & uses 1991 peak. Actual reduction since 1975 is small (graph) https://t.co/elRgDmJ0cD https://t.co/zPCi7pEy5Y pic.twitter.com/GPePvjS1MM

    — Eric Topol (@EricTopol) January 9, 2019

    --
    "Tempers are wearing thin. Let's just hope some robot doesn't kill everybody." --Bender
  46. It's probably just cleaner air by rsilvergun · · Score: 1

    Air pollution causes a lot more cancer than we like to talk about.

    --
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  47. Re:How dare those well-off do better! by dunkelfalke · · Score: 1

    My mother is a medical doctor and when her mother had cancer at the age of 89, my mother actually advised her to get pallative care instead of surgery and chemo. Well, my grandmother decided to start treatments and died within a few months in pain and in a hospital, not at home.
    So yes, I wish my grandmother was told by our health care system to go die at home.

    --
    "It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
  48. Poor People Have Misplaced Priorities by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The problem is that poor people spend what little money they earn (or are given through welfare) on beer, cigarettes, dip, and lottery tickets, and not health insurance or routine care.

    Every time I get gas at the station near my house, there's a line of people buying one or more of those four things - "oh and can I have two dollars on pump 5?"

    It's an astonishing lack of education combined with a general attitude of apathy after being beaten down by their wealthy masters. It's amazing how much effort the US government expends to keep poor people poor, and make rich people richer.

    For example, you can get on welfare and food stamps, but once you do, don't you dare get a job, because for every dollar you make, we're going to take away at least a dollar's worth of your benefits.

    Medicaid? Damn, son, you'd better stay COMPLETELY broke if you want to keep your medical care. Medicaid is the primary reason poor people have to RENT everything at exorbitant prices - to avoid showing assets that can disqualify them from medicaid. Seriously, that's some stupid shit right there.

    Benefits are available for the poor, and those benefits require you remain poor or else you lose them disproportionately to any success you may have. The US Government, and democrats in particular, love having a large dependency class that depends on their spending on welfare.

  49. Re:How dare those well-off do better! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They sell private insurance in canada, as well as ability to have private healthcare services.

    this granny paid-into a system of healthcare, and she got services for what she paid into -- which was deemed appropriate for the whole of society.

    This granny did not opt to puchase pfivate healthcare, she accepted the diagnosis of the doctors. this kid is who told you the story is just bitter about death and losign a loved on.

    Suck it up butterup, this isnt the movies -- everybody dies and we cannot as a society pay for everyone to try every option until the bitter end.

    The scenario of try every exhaustive treatment and keep a vegitable on a respirator for 20 years to seee if they recover -- this is a niche NICHE group of very wealthy people with ignorant family or family who cannot let go emotionally.

  50. Re:How dare those well-off do better! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I've known people in their 20s and 30s that were a hair's breadth from stopping chemo because it was so awful to endure. If I was in my 70s I'd skip it, personally.

  51. Re:How dare those well-off do better! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So what do you suggest is a fair age limit at what cost? 80 and 1m USD? 90 and 10m USD? Unlimited? It's a nasty reality but a real one, and you cannot be just outraged and just avoid that discussion.

  52. Re:How dare those well-off do better! by alvinrod · · Score: 1

    What was anyone expecting? There are still a limited number of doctors, hospital beds, and medication available. Just because it doesn't cost the end consumer any additional money beyond the taxes they already pay doesn't solve the problem of limited resources. Anyone who naively equates single payer with free and unlimited healthcare is deluding themselves.

    You always have rationing of supplies when people are competing for limited resources. The only question that remains is how to determine who receives the resources.

  53. Re:How dare those well-off do better! by alvinrod · · Score: 0

    Someone should go back in time and tell Sean Penn, Jeremy Corbyn, and everyone else who was praising Venezuela or its leaders.

    None of the other countries you've listed are socialist. They're all countries with market economies that don't go around nationalizing industries and driving them into the ground, try to implement central economic planning policies that are doomed to failure, or devolve into the types of dictatorships you get when you centralize that much power into the government.

  54. Re:How dare those well-off do better! by phantomfive · · Score: 1

    And where did the government get this guideline from?

    Actuaries, most likely.

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  55. Re:How dare those well-off do better! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    In America, an insurance agent will deny your request no matter your age as part of their standard operating procedure. Gotta maintain that profit! So once you ditch your system you can look forward to many more stories like yours only not only for the Grandparents, but grandkids. Enjoy the ride! #MCGA!

  56. Re:How dare those well-off do better! by phantomfive · · Score: 1

    It's worth mentioning that sometimes Americans come to Canada for treatment, and sometimes Canadians go to America for treatment. Why? Because the other side has better treatment.

    "Better" is difficult to quantify, and each side is better in some situations.

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  57. Re:Not possible by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Lie of the year was claims by Obama on the ACA. All news outlets agreed.
    Yet, here we have someone 5 years later still telling us it was the truth.

    Liberals are currently encouraging the death of 300 US citizens a DAY due to drugs coming from Mexico because US citizens dying by the hundreds isn't a concern to them. They are willing to let thousands die for a political attempt to make sure Trump loses reelection, there is no other reason for what they are doing. Remember, your life is meaningless to them if they can get a minor political advantage from you dying.

    Liberals = total shit.

  58. Cancer doesn't just happen... by Camarillo+Brillo · · Score: 1

    Its caused by environmental factors that the American Cancer Society ignores. I cannot be all that supportive of the American Cancer Society. They are in bed with some of the largest companies that profit from the "treatment" of cancer. Instead of promoting healthy life styles (like nutrition), and working to reduce avoiding toxins (such as polluted air) they continually support drug and surgery options. For example, writes Dr. Samuel S. Epstein, chairman of the Cancer Prevention Coalition, "Zeneca Pharmaceuticals--a spin-off of Imperial Chemical Industries is one of the world's largest manufacturers of chlorinated and other industrial chemicals, including those incriminated as causes of breast cancer. Zeneca has also been the sole multimillion-dollar funder of the National Breast Cancer Awareness Month since its inception in 1984, besides the sole manufacturer of Tamoxifen, the world's top-selling anticancer and breast cancer "prevention" drug, with $400 million in annual sales. For more information, check out: https://articles.mercola.com/s...

  59. Re:How dare those well-off do better! by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

    What are you talking about? The insurance company makes the decision based on the doctor's recommendations for that patient. There is no "guideline". What narrow thinking.

    --
    Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
  60. Re:How dare those well-off do better! by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

    I happily pay my taxes knowing that:
    A) Every time I have gone to the hospital (including life threatening issues) I have never been turned away and I have been seen in a timely manner, and
    B) I haven't gone bankrupt because of it

    Yes ACA got rid of lifetime caps or their ability to penalize for pre-existing conditions, blah blah blah. But for how long? The long and short of it is that these companies are blood thirsty sharks and will continue to lobby for these rules to be lifted. Their solitary goal is to rid you of all your money and they will not stop until they do so.

    --
    Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
  61. Re:How dare those well-off do better! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Your grandmother was elderly and was going to die soon anyways.

  62. Re:How dare those well-off do better! by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

    I mean in the case of Canada it would be the doctors' decision to make with the patient. Wow sounds so crazy doesn't it?

    --
    Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
  63. The healthcare equivalent to a Canadian Girlfriend by rsilvergun · · Score: 1

    Your friend's Grandma either doesn't exist or (just as likely) really _is_ too old for treatment. I don't mean "we're gonna let old people die" old I mean "the treatment will kill you quicker than the cancer".

    My mom died of Lung cancer. The treatment didn't stop the cancer, but it did make her last 4 years of life hell. Doctors have gotten a lot better at understanding what treatments are worthwhile. Me? I have no intention of going through that if I'm ever diagnosed.

    Here's a more benign example: My dental hygienist started trying to sell me braces until the dentist came in and shut it down because, well, I'm 41 years old and it would be kind of silly at this point.

    Meanwhile in America we get "Wallet Biopsies". Every time you go see a doctor somewhere in the back of their mind is "Can this person's insurance pay me for this"? A close family member of mine was on a steroid and now has screwed up bones because a doctor should have ordered an MRI to check for bone problems steroids can cause but didn't.

    I found out later the reason was likely because when doctors order tests the insurance companies won't pay for them if the come up blank. What this means is that unless your very, very well off then your doctor is likely to avoid ordering tests until it's painfully obvious you're suffering symptoms. This means a lot of diseases won't be caught until it's too late.

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  64. Re:How dare those well-off do better! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You would be a bit bitter too if this is how your Grandma was treated.

    Alternatively, we are not all whiny bitches. Nobody lives forever and not everybody accepts it as readily. However it is still a certainty whether or not you accept it.

  65. Re:For the wealthy, or the ones able to identify B by greylion3 · · Score: 1

    If you've become gluten-intolerant (or very gluten-sensitive), then yeah, would be a good idea to stay away from it.

    Eating gluten with that condition results in inflammation, which you are perpetuating.

    Chronic inflammation has been associated with cancer development, so it's not that far-fetched.

    --
    Privacy begins with ..
  66. Type-2 Diabetes is a life choice, almost always by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Fix your eating. Fewer processed foods, 99% less sugar, more veggies and meats. Not too many fruits, no more than 1 piece in a day. Eating this way helps with cancer prevention.
    Basically, we need to be mostly vegetarians with some meat 3-7 times a week. Cancer patients on chemo get into trouble for eating this way. https://www.mdanderson.org/pre...

    A diet rich in plant foods, whole grains and legumes can give your body the range of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants it needs to stay healthy.
    Plus, eating a variety of healthy foods can help prevent weight gain and decrease body fat. Maintaining a healthy weight is one of the most important thing you can do to reduce your risk of cancer.
    Eat a plant-based diet.

    Breads are an individual thing. I can tolerate a sandwich, but much more than that and my throat gets gunky. This condition changes as my weight increases. I'm more sensitive to this as I get older. In my 40s, it wasn't an issue.
    Grains can cause issues for many people, especially wheat. How much, if any, you can tolerate is personal and changing.

    Too much processing of any foods is bad.

    Move a little - an hour walk daily will do wonders compared to what most diabetics do. If you can, up the intensity, take the stairs at work (up AND down). Science around HIT is true. Look at sprinters. why do they look so overall fit? It isn't just from sprinting. Do some HIT a few times a week, but also do things you enjoy. Do something, anything, at least 5 times a week and do something for a 3-8 hrs once a week.

    Type-1 diabetes is completely different and definitely NOT a life choice.

  67. Re:How dare those well-off do better! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What are you talking about? The insurance company makes the decision based on the doctor's recommendations for that patient. There is no "guideline". What narrow thinking.

    That is absolutely false.
    I'm a hospital employee. The insurance companies very much do have detailed guidelines for medical practice that are imposed as part of the contract between hospital and insurance company. When you see an article where some hospital has dropped some insurance carrier, in almost every case what the fight is about is the hospital is refusing some new guideline being imposed by the insurance company.

    There are two payments made to hospitals by the insurance companies.
    One is a reimbursement for the care that a patient gets during a visit or stay. You see that on the bill you get.

    The second payment you do not see. it is part of the contract the insurance company has with the provider. It's a monthly lump the hospital gets from the insurance company and the amount of that depends upon whether the hospital follows the insurance company's guidelines, and those guidelines are very detailed guidelines for the practice of medicine. That payment would be paid even if the hospital had zero patients.
    It's a huge amount of money and can even be more than the reimbursement for services done. Plus if the hospital refuses to accept the guidelines, and thus have no contract, there's no monthly payment and the insurance won't reimburse patients who go there, so they go somewhere else.

    Trust me on this: as intrusive as Medicare's guidelines are in patient care, the insurance companies are far worse.

  68. wealthy? well off? lolz by iggymanz · · Score: 1

    You mean normal people who took responsibility for their own life and are educated and have normal job live longer, instead of being a parasite on someone else.

    not about being "rich"....

  69. Re:How dare those well-off do better! by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

    Is this in Canada?

    --
    Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
  70. Re:wealthy? well off? lolz by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

    If that theory were true then the headline would be "Rich people don't get cancer".

    --
    Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
  71. Not a medical mystery by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Rich people don't smoke, don't eat crap and they exercise.

    1. Re:Not a medical mystery by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      +1 for not getting industrial exposure for decades at work.
      1+ for not having to work in strange random homes all week.
      +1 for getting advice about early and repeated testing for any health issues passed down the generations.
      +1 for having a good doctor.
      +1 for a good dentist.

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
  72. I am an asshole by DaMattster · · Score: 2

    I could care less that cancer rates are down for the wealthy. Who honestly gives a shit when they do so much to prevent the working class from getting good healthcare, jobs, and homes. The fact that cancer rates are down for a mere 1% (if that) of the population is inconsequential.

  73. Re:How dare those well-off do better! by Dragonslicer · · Score: 1

    Can you cite to actual data, or just repeat an unverifiable anecdote?

  74. Two points make a line by edi_guy · · Score: 1

    Steve Jobs and Paul Allen.

    I recall an episode of 60 Minutes about 5 years ago where Leslie Stahl said that they stopped doing cancer cure breakthrough stories for a while, because inevitably the hype wouldn't pan out. But the story they were doing on day was extraordinary (something about using gold nano particles and then heating them using a CAT scan) so they broke their own rule and went nuts on the telecast. Of course that also didn't pan out....

    Cancer cure, AI, autonomous driving...things that are always 5 years out.

  75. Re:How dare those well-off do better! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is this in Canada?

    Sorry, I should have said up front this is in the USA, but OTOH, it should have been obvious that such a fucked-up situation would be in the USA.

  76. Re:Not possible by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yet, here we have someone 5 years later still telling us it was the truth.

    The lie being "If you like your plan you can keep it" right? I haven't heard anyone argue that point in a long time, but do you realize that Presidents don't actually write laws? Obama pushed for the ACA and signed what he could get.

    300 US citizens a DAY due to drugs coming from Mexico

    [Citation needed]. I can't speak for others, but I'm not buying this one without some kind of evidence.

    They are willing to let thousands die for a political attempt to make sure Trump loses reelection, there is no other reason for what they are doing.

    I can only speculate that you're talking about the Wall here. Again, I can't speak for others, but my main reason for being against Trump's Wall is that I don't think it will be effective. Drug smugglers will choose routes with no walls, or they'll put up ladders, or they'll tunnel underneath. Same with Coyotes.

    Oh, and I wouldn't think too hard about Trump's re-election: he's already done his part to ensure that won't happen.

  77. Re:Not possible by jeff4747 · · Score: 1

    Lie of the year [politifact.com] was claims by Obama on the ACA. All news outlets agreed.
    Yet, here we have someone 5 years later still telling us it was the truth.

    Hey look! You're lying again.

    The "lie of the year" was a mistake by Obama. He left out "and if your insurance company wants to continue issuing the insurance". All those people who couldn't keep their plan? Their insurance company ended the plan.

    But if you actually look at your own link, that "lie of the year" has nothing to do with how long the bill was available or debated. Which is what you lied about in your previous post.

    Liberals are currently encouraging the death of 300 US citizens a DAY due to drugs coming from Mexico

    You mean by the 4000 terrorists who actually turned out to be 6 people?

    Also, most of those deaths are being caused by opioids. Which are made in the good ol' US of A.

    Finally, very little drug smuggling is done directly over the border. Instead, it's delivered via ports, ports of entry, and airports. Says who? Trump's DEA and CBP
      https://www.azcentral.com/stor...

    They are willing to let thousands die for a political attempt to make sure Trump loses reelection

    How, exactly, would this work?

    If thousands are supposedly dying and the Democrats are to blame, then Trump can point to the lack of a wall as the reason for all those deaths. That would help Trump win re-election.

  78. Factors by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    what helped (in the west):
    - we now understand cancer, how it appears, functions, spreads, mutates. We knew much less only a few decades ago
    - removal of carcinogens from food, environment, understanding nanotoxicity (asbestos, diesel exhaust...), attempts at reducing polution in cities
    - lifestyle awareness
    - better early detection, awareness of symptoms (internet!), vastly better imaging options and availability (echography, MR, CT, PET, SCEPT...)
    - improvements, although gradual in 'traditional' treatment options - chemo, radiation & radiotherapy, surgery

    what didn't:
    - we live longer, some countries increased pollution. some countries are underdeveloped and lacking money. medical and pharma prices spiraling out of control (so not even public health services in Europe can afford the best for their patients).

    And now we are getting to the point we can cure it, albeit with expensive personalized GMO immunotherapy. It will be like in the Elysium movie, only for the rich. At least for a while.

  79. Re:How dare those well-off do better! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    you're too old to start treatments. Here is a bunch of pain pills. Please go home and die

    Yeah checks out. I'm sure that's 100% of the story, nothing to do with old people being unlikely to survive many of the treatment processes for cancers, no sirree. It must be dem Death Panels that have been proven to be stupidly false time and time again.

    Thanks but I'll take my chances in Canada rather than being bankrupted for catching a common cold.

  80. Re:How dare those well-off do better! by Weirsbaski · · Score: 1

    Just like my friends Grandma who was told by the very same Canadian health care system: Yes you have cancer, but according to the Canadian government you're too old to start treatments. Here is a bunch of pain pills. Please go home and die, and that is just what she did.

    I know you posted this to get the emotional reaction, but the story doesn't include some basic background info:
    - how old was your friend's grandma?
    - what was the prognosis (factoring in her whole health situation, not just the stage of cancer) if she got treatment?
    - what was her life-prognosis if she didn't get treatment?

    "Too old to start treatments" is really sad, but it can be a legitimate answer. eg- if chemo/rad will likely buy someone maybe one more year before another already-existing condition takes them, do they want to spend six of those extra twelve months going through absolute *hell*? And is it ethical for doctors to sign off on the six months of hell, if that's the situation?

    --

    I am not a sig.
  81. Re:wealthy? well off? lolz by iggymanz · · Score: 1

    it has words "for the wealthy anyway"

    which is false.

    first of all, cancer rate has dropped for everyone in USA in last 25 years

    the report then talks about poor countries vs. "wealthy" ones.

  82. David Rockfeller - 7 heart transplants last at 101 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yes, you read that right. Apparently he got that 7th heart in Mumbai, so I guess even a billionaire can't bypass the transplant criteria in the US.

  83. Re:How dare those well-off do better! by kbahey · · Score: 1

    That can't be the full story.

    It may have been that her cancer is terminal, and there is nothing that ca be done, apart from palliative care (hence the pain killers).

    As a counter point, I knew someone in Canada who had terminal brain cancer, and the surgeon still operated on her to remove part of the tumour, based on requests from her husband and mother. His stance was: so that the family feels that everything that was done, was indeed done. That was in addition to chemo and radiation. She still died in the end.

  84. Re: Type-2 Diabetes is a life choice, almost alway by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Meat 7 days a week? Works for me. Recommended.

  85. Re:Not possible by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How, exactly, would this work?

    If thousands are supposedly dying and the Democrats are to blame, then Trump can point to the lack of a wall as the reason for all those deaths. That would help Trump win re-election.

    He can and he will!

    The minor point of them not being real doesn't really matter much.

  86. Re:Mod parent up -Most smokers are poor by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

    Cite references that people who "take care of themselves" are illness free. Cite any kind of direct relationship at all, you won't find it.

    --
    Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
  87. Let's Do Nothing! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What good is "free" medical care ...

    This is the "Let's Do Nothing!" response, combined with "I Learn Nothing From Foreigners", and "Throw Up Random Objections".

    You fail because you are ignorant. You "know" that the US medical system is the best and all others are worse. Never mind numerous health and quality of life indicators, widely available, reliable, used for decades, that say otherwise.

    To the specifics. Queues in a Single Payer system are dynamic and not FIFO. If you have a "rapid cancer", you get rapid treatment. Slow cancers (e.g. prostate cancer in older men) can get slow treatment with no difference in outcomes. Note that this does not guarantee a slower trip through the medical system, only that the system may take advantage if it has queues there.

    Broken bones, ditto. Except that I've never heard of a week long delay in getting a bone set. You don't get to claim system-wide problems based upon that 1 forest ranger who broke a rib, that one time in 1976. And broken ribs are often not set but merely stabilized anyways.

    Now let's get substantive. It's not free medical care but you probably know that considering "air quotes". The point is, a medical crisis in a Single Payer system isn't automatically a financial crisis too. In the U.S., unless you have employer provided insurance, or you are a wealthy person, it frequently is.

    Single Payer is better for the Middle Class, better for the Poor, better for everyone who is in the 99%. The 1% get special deals and premium service no matter what the system is. They can and do take care of themselves. "Why build a system around the wealthy?" is the question you should be asking, and are not.

  88. To whatever asshole wrote that headline. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Stick you agenda up your ass. It is not "for the wealthy". The drop is primarily from tobacco smoking and other unhealthy activities declining and is cross bracket.

    1. Re:To whatever asshole wrote that headline. by epyT-R · · Score: 1

      Seriously, this reads like the front page of Pravda..

  89. re: goal of a nation by King_TJ · · Score: 1

    "In fact, I would argue that the goal of a nation should be to have the happiest people with the lowest GDP. Too much constant stress to produce takes people away from the meaningful things in life. Why have a population that works more than it has to?"

    To the above statement? I'd say that's fine in a utopian ideal world. But people are simply NOT going to stay happy while nobody is really interested in doing any work to produce things of value. When you see these societies depicted in TV shows or movies, you'll notice they're almost always science-fiction universes with fantastic technologies (like the "replicator" in Star Trek) that magically break through this reality barrier. At the most basic level, we don't even maintain order without putting in continual work. The natural state of things tends towards chaos. And humans aren't happy and enjoying "meaningful things in life" while everything around them is unorganized chaos.

  90. Capitalism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So the capitalist medical system is reducing cancer? How about the socialized systems? Better or worse?

  91. Re: goal of a nation by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

    You can both not require people to work and still reward the people who want to. Those two aren't mutually exclusive.

    --
    Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
  92. Misleading Title by jsfetzik · · Score: 1

    Occurrences of cancer are not down. It is the mortality rates that have reduced. Of course those with more wealth can afford to pay for treatment, can afford the "time off" to get those treatments and can afford the travel that is often required to get said treatment.

  93. Way to gloss over many of my points ... but ok ... by King_TJ · · Score: 1

    Tackling my last point first ....

    Yeah... if you manage to KILL a patient while trying to treat them in a hospital, I think its obvious they can't just ask for a do over. How many times does the patient die right after a hospital procedure, vs. the times they're able to go home? (You're the one with all these percentages -- so I'm sure you can enlighten me? I'm thinking the ones who die are like 1/100th. of the customer base though?) I'm certain there are MANY situations where a surgery is botched, and the patient complains to a "brick wall", because the hospital and doctors are conditioned to never admit mistakes, and to prepare to defend themselves in litigation. The better and cheaper solution is to offer to make it right. How can this NOT be a good policy to improve healthcare?

    Addressing your general life expectancy comparisons? That's an overly simplistic way to pretend to gauge "quality of healthcare". If a nation is full of people with a healthier lifestyle (less air pollution, better eating habits, less tendency to smoke, more inclined to get regular exercise, etc.) - they're going to have a better life expectancy, even if healthcare is relatively poor. I think by most standards, Americans do a lot of things that hurt their life expectancy -- and so far? The field of medicine still has a pretty terrible track record of actually curing illnesses, vs. treating symptoms.

    I don't believe, either, that it's impossible for healthcare to be an efficient market. That may have traditionally been true, but that's also thanks to its development as a science that was generally considered too difficult for the average person to understand. Doctors really wanted to be treated like gods, and patients were constantly advised not to try to self-diagnose their own problems. In fact, they're advised to keep visiting doctors for "regular check-ups", because presumably, even if you're well and feel healthy, you're not REALLY able to be sure without a doctor looking you over and confirming it. With advancements like prevalent Internet access, people can research their own health matters and discover such things as drug side effects and dangerous interactions with other drugs on their own. When it's time to see a doctor for a problem, they can go in, armed with some education about their situation too. Hospitals are just starting to be forced to make their rate cards available to the public, too. That's been a huge issue until now, because the insurance companies know what hospitals want to charge for procedures -- but the individuals didn't. You should soon be able to call around and get quotes for medical procedures, just like you would for any other expensive service.

  94. Re:Way to gloss over many of my points ... but ok by jeff4747 · · Score: 1

    How many times does the patient die right after a hospital procedure

    Every single patient who dies in a hospital. It's not like people go to the ER for entertainment.

    I'm certain there are MANY situations where a surgery is botched, and the patient complains to a "brick wall", because the hospital and doctors are conditioned to never admit mistakes, and to prepare to defend themselves in litigation.

    You are certain of many things that are wrong. This is one of them.

    Malpractice costs are an extremely small percentage of medical costs. It is utterly dwarfed by everything else. You are attacking a single ant when there are several dozen anthills.

    But it is the issue that would make those other profiteers more money, so they've spent a lot of time trying to convince you that they should get things like a free do-over for amputating the wrong leg.

    The better and cheaper solution is to offer to make it right.

    This is not actually possible to do in any surgery. The second surgery is always riskier, always causes longer recovery, and the vast majority of the time damage can not be fully repaired.

    Again, I go blind if that ophthalmologist screws up. An error rebuilding a broken shoulder would cause permanent loss of motion or loss of feeling, depending on how they screwed up. Leaving around part of a diseased appendix kills the patient. Cutting the wrong "tube" during a vasectomy has irreversible consequences. Putting a stent in the wrong artery damages that artery forever. And so on.

    How can this NOT be a good policy to improve healthcare?

    Because it's about as possible as healing people with a Himalayan Salt Lamp. Much cheaper, but doesn't work terribly well.

    Addressing your general life expectancy comparisons? That's an overly simplistic way to pretend to gauge "quality of healthcare".

    So....the point of quality healthcare is to not make people live longer?

    If a nation is full of people with a healthier lifestyle (less air pollution, better eating habits, less tendency to smoke, more inclined to get regular exercise, etc.) - they're going to have a better life expectancy, even if healthcare is relatively poor

    Hmmmm....wonder if there's a reason I picked Canada for a comparison......almost like it's pretty similar to the US on those factors.....

    The field of medicine still has a pretty terrible track record of actually curing illnesses, vs. treating symptoms.

    This is only slightly more uninformed than your belief that surgery lets you have "do-overs".

    With advancements like prevalent Internet access, people can research their own health matters and discover such things as drug side effects and dangerous interactions with other drugs on their own

    How does your ability to google a test tell you the value of the test? It could save you a million dollars in expensive treatment, lost wages and suffering. Or not.

    The only way to evaluate that test is to know all the details about your exact medical conditions, and how your personal history and other test results play into whatever that new test is looking for. And you can not find that kind of personalized information on WebMD. That will say "the test doesn't help 75% of the time" but you will not be able to evaluate if you are in that 25% where the test is critical. Because it's not possible to understand that without many years of intensive medical training. Heck, that's why specialists exist - even doctors can't properly evaluate every medical condition.

    Efficient markets require that the purchasers have about the same information as the sellers. That's why insider trading is illegal. And that similarity of knowledge

  95. CBD by Pipiska · · Score: 1

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  96. Re:How dare those well-off do better! by strikethree · · Score: 1

    When you are spending Other People's Money, there is a limit to how much money is available. I am old enough now where if something devastating happens to my health, I am ok with taking care of the grossest of symptoms (pain) until I die rather than spending my sons money in a vain effort to keep my ass alive.

    It sounds cold, and it absolutely IS cold to someone else who has not agreed to this tradeoff. We can't live forever and there is a finite amount of money. Opiates are cheap, but now, we can't even get those. We are all doomed to die in the most extreme agony possible now because of this. *sigh*

    At least his grandma got pain pills.

    --
    "Someone needs to talk to the tree of liberty about its ghoulish drinking problem." by ohnocitizen
  97. Important distinction by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Maybe I've missed it, but is it being suggested the wealthy have better chances at *surviving* cancer then the so-not-well-off when they get it, or do they have less chances of getting it in the first place?