The problem with painkillers is that they went from simple analgesics to narcotics. Narcotics like Oxy, Vicodin, Morphine were created for the worst of the worst pain that didn't necessarily take away the pain but more made you too high to care. What ended up happening is that doctors went from treaters of sickness to scrip writers. It's easier and faster to listen to what a patient is telling them and write a scrip than to actually take the time to examine someone and actually treat them. I remember twisting my knee in high school during a football game. My treatment schedule was ice, compression, elevation, Tylenol. If I got the same injury today it would have been ice, compression, elevation, hydrocodone. This is due to 2 fronts. #1, the advent of the HMO. Before the HMO, the only insurance you might have had was traditional(BC/BS) or major medical which you didn't use unless you absolutely had to otherwise, if you went to the doctor, you had to pay the full amount of the visit. When HMO's came about with their cut rates and small co-pays(anyone remember paying $5 as a co-pay?), it made it easier for people to go to the doctor for the most inane things. Instead of staying home, drinking plenty of fluids, getting rest, an taking Formula 44 for a cold or the flu, now you went to your doctor and were written a scrip.
Point 2 is that the doctors offices are not only filled with patients out the wazoo, they are also filled with pharma salespeople pushing their wares. I never saw this when I was a kid let alone advertisements for pharmaceuticals on TV and radio. Some salesman comes in with Tamaflu and gets the doctor to buy into it. The next patient through the door gets a scrip for Tamaflu. Beats examining them and actually treating them.
