Why the U.S. healthcare system will NEVER collapse

Merrill Goozner is one of our heroes. In fact, his 2004 book, The $800 Million Pill, was one of our inspirations for starting eDrugSearch.com. Obviously, ours is a for-profit venture — but we also think we are doing some good by offering consumers an alternative to Big Pharma’s rigged pricing system in the U.S.We recently asked Merrill about his interest in the pharmaceutical industry, his opinion on Canadian imports, and his predictions for the future of our healthcare system.Cary: You’ve covered many, many stories over the course of your career in journalism. What is it about the pharmaceutical industry that has captured and held your interest?Merrill: While attending the Breaux-Thomas commission hearings on Medicare reform on Capitol Hill in the late…

Maggie Mahar, author of Money-Driven Medicine: The Real Reason Health Care Costs So Much, argues at TPMCafe that our “me”-oriented healthcare system makes it difficult to permit terminal patients to purchase potentially life-saving drugs that have not yet been approved by the FDA.Writes Mahar:A recent study shows that fully 42% of the products that make it to the third, and final phase of FDA trials ultimately fail because they prove ineffective and/or unsafe.How do so many lemons get so far? The study suggests that once a drug company has invested a certain amount of money “and reserachers have invested a certain amount of time and ego” it becomes difficult to admit failure. Moreover, as long as investors think a drugmaker…

Just as with prescription drug programs, municipal governments are taking matters into their own hands to deal with America’s failed healthcare system. From the WSJ Health Blog:Another local effort to deliver complete health care to everybody is emerging, this time from San Francisco. Later this year, the city will begin offering what it says will be a comprehensive care network for all city residents who have been uninsured for at least 90 days … Care will be free to those below the poverty line, with those who earn more paying quarterly fees between $60 and $675, depending on income …Officials hope the projected $200 million cost will be at least partly offset by getting more people in for regular care,…

This dude’s conspiracy theories really freak me out.

CNN pundit Glenn Beck made this video from his bed at home to shed light on what he now believes is wrong with the U.S. healthcare system — inspired, he claims, by the fact that he was mistreated.Unfortunately, what the video really reveals is not what’s wrong with healthcare (that should be obvious), but what’s wrong with U.S. “journalism” today — namely, putting egomaniacal, uninformed pundits like Beck on the air in the first place. It’s clear that the only reason he’s upset is that HE got poor care; as he says in the video, “it’s jarring to me to be a successful guy” and be put in this position.We feel so sorry for you…really.Actually, we feel sorry for America.

This ad was used in 1994 to kill Hillary Clinton’s universal healthcare plan through scare tactics and misinformation:As Ezra Klein points out, Obama is taking a similar approach in bashing Hillary’s much watered-down plan of 2007 — just from the other direction:The only thing that’s changed in healthcare politics over the past 13 years, it seems, is that our ambitions have become smaller. The demagoguery that prevents us from solving real problems continues unabated.

We’re delighted to be a sponsor and participant in Matthew Holt’s Health 2.0 conference in San Diego today and tomorrow.Though I won’t be able to attend, Scott Baradell — a strategic advisor who has worked closely with me since our company’s founding — will represent eDrugSearch.com at the event. Scott will be introducing the panel “Health 2.0: The future user experience?” moderated by Jane Sarasohn-Kahn and featuring panelists including:Thomas Goetz, WiredEsther Dyson, EDventureDavid Kibbe, MD, AAFPDoug Solomon, IDEOScott Shreeve, MD, Crossover HealthcareAmy Tenderich, Diabetes MineScott has promised to blog about his experience when he gets back.

I’m just back from San Diego, where Matthew Holt’s second Health 2.0 conference finished up on Tuesday evening. Some of the things I found interesting about the conference:There weren’t many doctors there. There were a few — some of them, like a brilliant young visionary named Dr. Jay Parkinson, doing remarkable things. But he was one of a handful in attendance. (Erick and Linda from PharmaSurveyor wore some cool mad-scientist lab coats at Monday’s cocktail party — but they aren’t physicians.)There weren’t many big healthcare players there, either. Sure, Johnson & Johnson was a sponsor, but the vibe was a little like GM’s interest in the electric car; do they really want to help lead this movement — or just…