Comment by lotsofpulp
19 days ago
> Because then the companies that have been given legal license to monopolize this technology (through the legal technology known as "patents") could charge whatever price they wanted and insurance companies would have to pay for it? The ability for an insurance company to say no is literally their only negotiation leverage.
Insurance companies have to pay $100k+ per month for medicine for anemic people, and many other much higher cost medicines. Why is a couple hundred dollars to fix THE single biggest cause of future healthcare expenses (diabetes, high blood pressure, and cholesterol) not covered?
https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/health/2017/05/...
Insurers routinely pay for $1M+ NICU babies, $100k+ heart surgeries, yada yada, but the US government draws the line at medicine that costs $200 per month that prevents hundreds of thousands of dollars in future spend?
I can’t make it make sense, unless the junk food/alcohol/restaurant/sugar caffeine drink lobby has their tentacles deep in the government.
> I can’t make it make sense
I think the easiest answer is found by looking towards religion. Gluttony being one of the seven deadly sins. Obesity is seen as a moral problem by a lot of people, so paying for its treatment would be broadly unpopular. People who cannot control their appetite need to suffer.