At the end of the article, they throw in the ", but..." remark. It's easy to get caught up in the wonder of the science and innovation, however we can't forget medicine is more politics than anything. In the US, these wonder drugs for cancer, HIV, etc. are easy to come by if you lived by a major tertiary or quaternary care center. Many Americans are in rural areas, where the local clinic or hospital can only provide preventative or stabilizing care, and they may not even have a physician, it may be a NP or PA, or even an EMS service that can transport them a town over to the ER.

As the article says, our innovation is great, but we cannot forget to improve our infrastructure to prevent disparities in access to them that often occur in rural areas and among the poor and minority groups.