Sunday, 27 January 2013  The Rising Cost of Healthcare  The BBC
has an interesting article drawing on the discussions at the
World Economic Forum at Davos.  Its main thrust is that
healthcare costs are driving the current economic downturn in
the West. It claims that healthcare costs in the US amount to
20% of all government spending, whilst most European countries
are spending around half of that treating the sick, elderly and
infirm.  There should be little that is surprising in the
article, healthcare costs are high because of social and
government failures in keeping the population well. Never more
has the old axiom 'an ounce of prevention is worth more than a
pound of cure' been more appropriate than today. More so when
Government austerity measures are all but designed to increase
the healthcare burden through their social impact.  The greatest
part of healthcare spending goes to treating chronic care
conditions - and many of those conditions are preventable, most
at next to no cost, some at minimal cos