The authors argue that it doesn't make sense that we are all suffering from additional diseases when everyone is living so much longer. They write:
Most of us experience physical or emotional sensations we don’t like, and in the past, this was considered a part of life. Increasingly, however, such sensations are considered symptoms of disease. Everyday experiences like insomnia, sadness, twitchy legs and impaired sex drive now become diagnoses: sleep disorder, depression, restless leg syndrome and sexual dysfunction.
They also write about the "medicalization of childhood" where every sniffle is a reason for treatment. I must say I agree with them.
All of these treatments, of course, cost money. Of course, you, the consumer, don't generally care how much they cost because you have insurance. The most I pay for a prescription is $25 for a month supply. If I order it from my prescription provider they'll give me 3 months for $25. I don't think about cost when my physician writes a prescription and neither does he, because he knows I have insurance.
And who pays for most of that insurance? Employers do. And health care costs are skyrocketing, yet we don't see a correlation between what we do and what the costs are. Maybe we'd all get bigger raises if our employers weren't paying for what used to be considered normal life.
2 comments:
My personal pet peeve is diagnosing ones self with Strep every time you have a sore throat. Man, you'd think there was some sort of Strep-idemic!
And ADHD? Is this a new disorder? Kids with a short attention span? In my day, you corrected this with a ruler smacked on the desk! =)
Jon,
You'll probably appreciate this link then.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBjGZr4swvg
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