Polypharmacy is one of the many problems confronting patient care. It’s a bizarre situation: patients get too many of the meds they need and not enough of the ones that they can’t afford.

I agree with you that we need much better preventative medicine, including encouraging a culture of healthy lifestyles. It’s a big effort, especially since there’s a viscous cycle of lifestyle management: unhealthy bodies lead to depressed brains which lead to laziness and junk food cravings and so on.

As for pharmaceuticals, pharmaceutical companies work hard to develop useful and important substances that can improve the lives of millions. On average, for every drug that makes it to market 5,000 study drugs fail. 1 out of 5,0000! It’s an expensive project, one that’s easily bashed in the press (some of it justifiably).

So it’s important that we have a healthcare system that’s not only equitable, but effective. The problem is WAY larger than most of us realize.

I used to be opposed to socialized medicine. I still am at a core level. But in light of the $850 Billion bailout (and the more to come), I don’t feel anybody has the right to bash ’socialized medicine’…not anymore. The word Socialist has lost its meaning.

Think of the kind of healthcare system we could help build with $1,000,000,000,000. Think of the capital and infrastructural changes we could make: and it still could be a largely private industry.

My advice: eat your veggies, meditate, walk daily and make friends with doctors and nurses.