When and how did healthcare go for profit?

Answer 1

Richard Nixon was responsible for much of the current system's origins. If you don't believe me watch Frost/Nixon

Oh sure, get all your information from a MOVIE. That's real smart.

Health care has been a "for-profit" enterprise since its very inception. The first witch doctors that shook sticks and attached leeches got "paid" for their services. Even in tribal economies with no money, those who devoted their time to healing people were given food and shelter by the tribe, though they didn't help hunt the mammoth or build the homes. People who heal other people do not do so for free. They expect to be compensated. And they expect to be compensated at a rate that exceeds the cost of providing health care, the very definition of profit. To be fair, most health care providers have a genuine concern for their patients, but they certainly are not altruistic to the point that they would provide their services for free, or at an economic loss.

The fact is, health care "for profit" is, by far, the best alternative. The large incomes that doctors receive attract the best and brightest students to the profession. If doctors didn't get paid any more than trash collectors, then their average IQ wouldn't be any higher than that of trash collectors either.

And when it comes to drug companies, I know a lot of people are upset about the high cost of prescription drugs. But many people simply don't understand how much it costs to bring a prescription drug to market. There are millions of dollars in research and development. Then there are millions more in costs for mandatory testing by the FDA. And much of this money goes for naught because ideas don't pan out, either at the R&D stage or the FDA testing. So the cost of all the "failed" drugs has to be absorbed by the few that make it all the way through. Now, if that drug is for a common ailment that a lot of people suffer, then that's alright, because drug companies can spread that fixed R&D and FDA cost over a large number of prescriptions. But if the ailment is rare, they won't sell much of that drug, so to make a profit, they have to charge a very high price.

But why is it necessary for drug companies to make a profit? Well, if they didn't, they couldn't stay in business for very long, could they? And the more profit they make, the better they are able to attract the most brilliant minds into the field, similar to the way high incomes attract the best doctors.