What purpose can this serve except as flamebait?
I've seen flamebait. This is not flamebait. It's just a conservative new to the lower forums; don't worry though, our liberal brainwashing rays are powering up as we speak.
In any case, another thing which isn't mentioned enough in talk of healthcare reform is the pile of rubbish which goes under the moniker 'alternative medicine.' In summary for those who aren't familiar, alt med is generally defined as any sort of 'healthcare' which is incompatible with current scientific evidence. Or to grab the lines from a particularly amusing piece: "it has either not been proven to work, or been proven not to work. We have a name for alternative medicine which has been proven to work: medicine." Most healthcare systems these days, be they universal or private, include coverage of 'alternative medicine' and similar 'treatments.' The cost of these is then included in whatever pool is used; be it universal or the company's insurance pool. Most policies and such do not have the option to opt out if you don't want to pay for other people to take snake oil. This is also referred to as 'CAM' (complementary and alternative medicine), and is used by about 38% of the US population according to the NIH. Most of these are entirely or almost entirely unregulated by the FDA or other regulatory bodies and do not need to show effectiveness. These include things like
homeopathy (which is big enough that many drug stores, pharmacies, and grocery stores stock them), and generally anything on this list:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Alternative_medical_systemsSo; your insurance/tax dollars are paying for BS like this:
In the context of homeopathy, the term "remedy" is used to refer to a substance which has been prepared with a particular procedure and intended for patient use; this differs from the generally accepted use of the word, which means "a medicine or therapy that cures disease or relieves pain".[8] Homeopathic remedies should not contain pharmacologically active molecules,[9] A pharmacological effect would violate fundamental principles of homeopathy.[5][10] Modern homeopathic practitioners have suggested "water has a memory", allowing homeopathic preparations to work without any of the original diluted substance; however, no verified observations nor scientifically plausible physical mechanisms account for such phenomena
Homeopathy's efficacy is unsupported by the collective weight of modern scientific research. The extreme dilutions used in homeopathic preparations usually leave none of the original material in the final product. The modern mechanism proposed by homeopaths, water memory, is considered implausible in that short-range order in water only persists for about 1 picosecond.[105][106] Pharmacological effect without active ingredients is inconsistent with the observed dose-response relationships of conventional drugs,[107] leaving only non-specific placebo effects[3][108][109] or various novel explanations. The proposed rationale for these extreme dilutions – that the water contains the "memory" or "vibration" from the diluted ingredient – is counter to the laws of chemistry and physics, such as the law of mass action.[105] The lack of convincing scientific evidence supporting its efficacy[24] and its use of remedies without active ingredients have led to characterizations as pseudoscience and quackery,[25][27][28][110] or, in the words of a 1998 medical review, "placebo therapy at best and quackery at worst."[29] Use of homeopathy may delay or replace effective medical treatment, worsening outcomes or exposing the patients to increased risk.
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