25.01.2014 - 23:45 [ Buzz Flash ]

Hospitals and Doctors Make Money Off of Illness: Maryland Wants Them to Make People Healthier

The current US medical system financially rewards hospitals and doctors (particularly highly compensated specialists) for performing more procedures and treating more diseased people, not for prevention (although the Affordable Care Act makes some progress in that direction). It is perverse: The aging of the US population aside, the healthcare system becomes more profitable institutionally and personally (for medical providers) as the number of diseased patients rises and hi-tech tests and operations are performed.