Hacker News Reader

Comment by anigbrowl | Hacker News Reader

Then why do we regularly see stories about doctors engaging in epically fraudulent billing practices, taking illegal kickbacks from drug manufacturers, prescribing unneeded drugs and so on? Have you heard of the opiate crisis? Because if so you cannot but be aware of how much of it is driven by prescription rather than black market drug sales. Not to put too fine a point on it, the drug market in the US is a total shitshow, and taking your comment at face value requires ignoring a mountain of evidence.

Please don't insult our intelligence with your argument from ignorance. If you actually believe what you wrote above, then you are massively under-informed and should pay more attention to the news.

View on HN

You seem to be a very angry person.

We see stories about that because we are a country of 330 million people and there will be some subset of any [group of people] who do bad things in such a large population. The vast majority of doctors are highly ethical.

As for opiates, I'm afraid I don't quite fit into your strawman; I think doctors should be banned from prescribing them on an outpatient basis to anyone but patients with a terminal prognosis. Chronic pain is awful, but opiate addiction is still worse. Since the action (and addictive mechanism) of opiates causes the pain to worsen over time, it's not an appropriate treatment.

The main reason for overprescription of opiates is not some evil doctor conspiracy, it's because doctors, like everyone, have a very hard time telling people "no." And there's no group of people more skilled at emotional manipulation than junkies.

You wouldn't be saying that as a chronic pain sufferer. They are the only thing that makes my life livable. With them, I'm a competent member of society. Without... well, I'd be dead, thus negating my entire social and economic investments by society. Seems pretty stupid.

Overprescription of opiates is also a cause for "junkies", not just a consequence of their skills in emotional manipulation.

It's a feedback loop. I suspect the ur-cause of the current epidemic is higher rates of depression related to an aging population and chronic un- and underemployment.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com