Maggie's Farm

Amen to that observation.
Behaviorally modern humans have been around for ca 70K years, while medicine that makes an actual difference in the treatment of disease (excluding trauma medicine for this comment) for around 30 to 65 years. These technological advances have been costly. I can remember when there were a couple of vaccines, 2 modestly effective antibiotics, as well as topical antibiotics, a primitive insulin, digitalis and nitro, aspirin, opiates, and baking soda, oh, and alcohol. There was no holocaust, especially after sanitation was introduced to birthing.
That said, when a person got sick with a chronic, terminal, or debilitating condition, there was not all that much that could be done; in reality, it was basically hospice. It really didn’t make any difference how much money the patient had, there weren’t that many treatments that prolonged life or improved quality of life in a significant measureable way.
It is only right and fair to factor in, and consider, that health care costs are really rising and outstripping the capacity of what, we used to think of as the middle class, to pay for it. It is not always about dead beats or free riders. If the middle class was thriving, healthcare wouldn’t be that great an issue. We won’t get anywhere if we don’t acknowledge that many people have good reason to be afraid of being wiped out by a medical catastrophe.

It's not just cancer.
I rarely encounter anyone who will discuss healthcare costs with candor and honesty. It’s way past time to come to terms with the reality that demand for medicine... creates...more demand for medicine, It's a paradox, I know. If this isn't part of the conversation, it is beyond me how anyone can find solutions.
The Rising Cost of Healthcare, just scratching the surface here.
1 An explosion of new and effective drugs and treatments that didn't……… exist 60 years ago.
Many of these drugs/ treatments aren't one offs but are prescribed for decades or for
life.
2. Demographics: The population has almost doubled over the last 60 years with a disproportionate increase in the percentage of 50+ year olds. Increasing longevity means the diseases of old age are more prevalent and more older people need treatment, NOT for just a FEW golden years but for golden DECADES. In the past, many people did not live long enough to get the diseases associated with age: like cancer, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, glaucoma, osteoarthritis (knee replacement)............In the past people didn't recover long term from strokes and heart attacks. And if they did, long term care was hospice like.
3. Survivors: In some ways, medical costs are a victim of medical success stories. Newborns, who would have died 30 years ago, survive severe problems and extreme prematurity. The trade off is that many are left with lifelong complications and side effects requiring a life time of expensive care and treatment. A similar paradigm occurs with many cancer patents or HIV patients. Don't leave out accident victims; think of wheel chairs and prosthetics and the costs of surviving a severe brain injury and I haven't brought up transplants and medivac. There are many people, with conditions that would have been terminal or debilitating in the past, who live happy, productive lives thanks to treatments and drugs that keep their symptoms at bay: kidney disease, Krohn's, MS............ Weigh that against the cost to society of nonproductive people.
4. I have read reports that American healthcare relies a great deal more on disposability of medical products than other countries, in the battle against the spread of infection. This has cost trade offs too.

I'm not saying that there aren't other drivers, like paper shuffling and reporting, waste, fraud, tort and patent law, government interference, and no doubt they add a percentage to the costs.......but to ignore the real cost drivers mentioned above gives an incomplete picture.