For decades medicine has become an increasingly for-profit business rather than a charitable act of helping people. Making medicine a profitable business means that money can be dedicated to researching and finding new cures for things, and those cures can generate additional revenue to find still more cures and treatments. But the downside is that treatments that have been around for decades that people need to save their lives are quickly becoming unreachable due to costs. Have we shot ourselves in the foot by going too far into profitability in medicine?
Insulin is a prime example of this. When it was first introduced several decades ago, the patent was given away so it could be produced cheaply for all who needed it. Now in the last decade the cost of insulin has grown so high that diabetics are rationing their insulin because they can’t afford it, and some have even died from this practice.
Learn more about the perils of mixing business and medicine below.
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