Mithrandir

I think in general the medical industry is more interested in treating symptoms of disease than curing it. Examine how gastric bypass surgery is easily covered by most insurance companies, but I have to pay out of my nose to get dietitian and nutritionist help. You see this with many other areas of the health industry... especially with drug makers.

Now sure, on the doctor level I'm willing to bet many, if not most, are actually interested in helping people*. After all, there are much easier ways to make money that don't involve spending 8-12 years in rigorous schooling if that's your ultimate goal. But that's only one part of the equation. Livestrong (.com, note it's run by a corporation that licenses the livestrong trademark from the Lance Armstrong Foundation) and Weight Watchers are corporations, organizations that exist solely to make money. Sure they may have been started at one point with a good intention, but as soon as shares are issued, boards of directors created, and CFO's get involved, it rapidly becomes about one thing and one thing only: what is the best way to make money? Hence you get the current healthcare industry today, where insurance companies have to be told, in law, to stop denying people coverage that they had paid for.

* - Of course there are exceptions, which reminds me of a friend of mine who recently had her doctor prescribe her antibiotics for a common cold. Utterly ridiculous.