Completely coincidentally, admitting that chronic Lyme exists, and, worse yet, coming up with an accepted way of diagnosing it, could instantly create a pool of hundreds of thousands of Americans covered by insurance policies that would then be obligated to pay indefinitely for treatment that costs up to $1000/month for oral amoxicillin, and perhaps $10,000/month for the more-effective intravenous drugs.
The conspiracy theory cuts both ways, though: a common conspiracy theory holds that massive numbers of people are being pumped full of painkillers and drugs that they don’t need by a multinational conspiracy between the drug companies and the FDA.
Even if believing one meant you had to believe the other, that would merely set the drug companies and insurance companies at odds. Which makes sense, given that one is trying to extract money from the other.
It’s conceivable that once there’s a group receiving expensive treatments, there’s a constituency to continue and expand those treatments, but there’s a constituency to not start spending more money on a merely potential constituency.
The conspiracy theory cuts both ways, though: a common conspiracy theory holds that massive numbers of people are being pumped full of painkillers and drugs that they don’t need by a multinational conspiracy between the drug companies and the FDA.
Even if believing one meant you had to believe the other, that would merely set the drug companies and insurance companies at odds. Which makes sense, given that one is trying to extract money from the other.
It’s conceivable that once there’s a group receiving expensive treatments, there’s a constituency to continue and expand those treatments, but there’s a constituency to not start spending more money on a merely potential constituency.