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What the government does not like to admit is that another 20% of Medicare dollars are paid out in the form of overpayments to those with political connections. What companies do is lobby Congress to enact legislation mandating that Medicare pay inflated prices for certain products and services that can be obtained for a fraction of the price on the free market. This enables those who are politically connected to grossly overcharge Medicare because Congress mandates the inflated expenditures.

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All it takes to make this drug is to put 5 mg of finasteride into a tablet that dissolves in the stomach. Vitamin companies do this every day with nutrients, but the FDA does not allow them to freely do the same thing with drugs.

- William Faloon, Why American Healthcare is Headed for Collapse – Life Extension.

So, to review: government dietary guidelines have been ass-backwards for at least a good portion of the population (not in this article, see Calories and my previous posts).  Medicare pays several times what it should for almost everything and anything. The FDA kills – yes, kills — by driving up the cost of the producing drugs and making new treatments unavailable; but everyone already knows that, and no one seems to really care. But the people want more government involvement in healthcare, and by golly, that’s what they’re going to get, sooner or later, one way or another.