The United States Health Care system, called “Western Medicine,” is broken beyond repair. It is so deadly, expensive, corrupt, inefficient, and riddled with “special interest” that there is, absolutely no starting point to use to begin to set it right.
Opinion by Consumer Advocate Tim Bolen
The government agencies WE THINK we put in place to monitor our health system have been completely corrupted by those “special interests.”
The system needs to be completely shut down. Americans would be far better off without it. For, we don’t own it anymore.
Everybody knows that the United States’ MEDICARE System will go belly-up in the year 2011. It’s going to be, at that point, so costly that the United States simply won’t be able to afford it anymore. American corporations, right this moment, are cutting back their health care offerings. No one can afford the skyrocketing costs. Health Insurance companies are desperately trying to reduce provider expenditure – and because of that, Americans are being offered a poorer, and poorer, quality of health care. Everything NEW is being banned. And, what’s left is worthless.
Can America (and the world) take back its health care system?
No. We need to tear down the existing system and build a new one. And here’s why.
Western medicine’s “special interests,” (1) Big Pharma, (2) the Hospital system, and (3) insurance companies, have one thing in common – sheer unadulterated greed. In the name of the “almighty buck,” they are bleeding America to death. (4) Even worse, the system America put together to regulate health care has been corrupted, and compromised.
It is a war between the American people and corporate interests – and it’s deadly. Because of it Americans are getting a seventeenth (17th) rated health care system – compared to the industrialized world.
That’s right – 17th…
Fortunately, there are those involved, already, in changing things. For simplicity, lets call these people “The North American Health Freedom Movement.” But it’s more than just a health freedom issue. It is a war between “health” and “medicine.”
Americans, and virtually everyone worldwide, have figured out that there is a BIG difference between “health” and “medicine.” “Medicine” is an endless, and expensive, “treatment” of symptoms regimen, leaving the patient in a marginal state, in many cases useless to society and themselves… “Health” proponents find the cause of the problem and eliminate it – allowing the patient to return to their normal life – if not vastly improved.
Since 1993 the American health care system (medicine) has been in a panic over the growing influence of “health” proponents. Now, in 2005, over 50% of the total US health care dollar is spent on “health” instead of “medicine.” 88% of US adults use, and believe in, some kind of “alternative” to “medicine.” Virtually ALL expenditures for “health” are out-of pocket – and not paid for by insurance or MediCare. Virtually ALL expenditures for “medicine” are paid for by insurance and MediCare.
In fact, ALL that’s holding up “Western Medicine” is the insurance and MediCare system. Americans won’t spend an out-of-pocket nickel on it.
Why is the “Western Medicine” system NOT fixable?
Because of the “special interests.”
(1) “Big Pharma” we know, is of itself, and by itself, the most murderous, corrupt, operation mankind has ever faced as an enemy. Merck’s “Vioxx scandal” is symptomatic of the WHOLE industry. Merck executives, after knowing the problems in their deadly product, poured 500 million dollars into the promotion of Vioxx. Why? To make billions of dollars… So far, Merck executives have not even been questioned by US federal authorities, much less arrested, tried, and hung from a rope – like they should be. They Murdered, in the First Degree, 55,000 Americans. And, that’s just the numbers for “Vioxx.”
The world Press is waking up to this problem – and is having field day condemning “Big Pharma” and US Regulators that intentionally failed to protect us – like the FDA, the NIH, etc…
We also know that “Big Pharma” funds and controls a worldwide “Quackbuster” operation – designed to stomp on market competitors to drugs, drugs, and more drugs. It’ll take us years to sort out how many people have died, or have been injured, because this organization prevented, or discouraged, the use of “health”modalities.
(2) The Hospital System sucks. The newest study, “Death by Medicine,” a compilation of the most recent government studies, shows that the Hospital system is the NUMBER ONE killer of Americans. Hospital industry executives are clearly, and openly, doing nothing to solve this problem. Their focus is on making EVEN more money. So far, hospital industry executives, have not even been questioned by US federal authorities, much less arrested, tried, and hung from a rope – like they should be. They have Murdered, in the First Degree, 783,936 Americans each and every year…
(3) The insurance companies – are a not funny joke. Basically, they’ve tried to put health care into an actuarial table – “when this diagnosis is made – then this is what the health professional is to do – and this is what we’ll pay. Anything else is health fraud.”
With a health insurance plan, not only are you restricted to a “medicine” regimen, instead of “health,” but you are restricted to the CHEAPEST, nastiest, version of“Western Medicine” they can find.
(4) The corruption of the regulatory system is immense. The Press, worldwide, is doing a good job of pointing out “Big Pharma’s” outright ownership, and control, of the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) and the National Institute of Health (NIH). It’s time that problem was eliminated.
But what the major Press hasn’t figured out yet is that the Hospital System is equally guilty of controlling the regulatory system that is supposed to monitor it.
Nothing is being done in the US about the 783,936 annual deaths caused by The Hospital System. Why? Because the Hospital system controls the State medical boards – and no prosecutions are ever filed against those hospital based doctors that cause so much death and destruction.
How do they do that? They stack the deck.
In California, several years ago, we looked at the fact that 65% of the licensed MDs in the State were “solo” practitioners (not institutionally associated), but 95% of the prosecutions, annually, were against those same “solo” practitioners. At the time, ALL of the Medical board members were “institutionally associated.” The staff of the California medical board clearly favored institutions over solo practice.
Medical Board members, usually appointed by the State’s Governor, are generally “mushrooms” when it comes to the actual decision process necessary to prosecute bad doctors. In addition, political pressure “from the system” has limited operation of the medical boards, in terms of prosecutions, to the amount of money collected from “licensing fees” – a pittance. In essence, medical board operations are kept too dumb, and too poor, to deal with the problems of doctors.
To this day NO State Medical Board, or its staff, has a program in place, to deal with their share of the 783,936 annual deaths caused by “The Hospital System.”
Worse, is that many State Medical Boards have become tools of unscrupulous insurance companies not wanting to pay a doctor’s bill. The insurance company files a complaint against the doctor for alleged “fraud” when they don’t want to pay the bill, and the Medical board prosecutes the doctor on their behalf. Sometimes, I’m told, the insurance company gives the agency a “grant” to prosecute their target. The Suster case, in Wisconsin, is a good example.
The bottom line is that the State Medical Boards are NOT acting on behalf of the people. They are acting on behalf of “special interests.”
So what do we, as Americans, do about this?
We need to destroy the system – and punish those responsible in the most SEVERE manner possible.
(1) “Big Pharma” needs to be shut down, completely. It needs to become “Little Pharma,” with SEVERE restrictions on the promotion, sale, and use of its products. Absolutely NO TELEVISION advertisements must be allowed. Huge punishments need to be put in place for health professionals who abuse the use of dangerous drugs. We need to have laws in place to make it a federal felony to use a prescription drug for anything other than what, and for whom, it has been specifically tested for. We need to make it a felony for a health professional to prescribe more than one drug at a time, unless those drugs have been specifically tested together, to determine their effects, and approved.
(2) We need to shut down the Hospital System except for Emergency Rooms. We can do this by simply forcing our State Medical boards to go after those doctors who kill those 783,936 Americans each and every year… If we hold the doctors responsible, it won’t take long before the remaining doctors won’t go near any hospital that doesn’t pay attention.
(3) What insurance companies are offering in the way of health care is absurd. It isn’t worth laying out good money for. Buy yourself an inexpensive high deductible “catastrophic” policy, and put your money to work elsewhere. Get off the couch and get to know your local health food store. The National Coalition for Health Care (NHFC) said in 2003 “By 2006 the average family health insurance premium will exceed $14,500; premium costs will have increased by more than $5,000 in just three years.”
The NCHC also said “Many experts agree that our health care system is riddled with inefficiencies, excessive expenses, inflated prices, poor management, inappropriate care, waste and fraud. These problems significantly increase the cost of medical care and the cost of health insurance for employers and consumers.”
But few are asking the question – “why is the cost of health insurance going up?” The answer is simple – sheer unadulterated, murderous, greed.
(4) The corruption of the regulatory system is the worst thing.
(a) At the federal level, like at the FDA, FTC, and NIH we have what amounts to “treason, “ defined by dictionary as:
- Violation of allegiance toward one’s country or sovereign, especially the betrayal of one’s country by waging war against it or by consciously and purposely acting to aid its enemies.
- A betrayal of trust or confidence.
So, let’s prosecute treasonous acts. Hard.
(b) At the State level, it’s a bit different. There is no clear delineation of responsibility for health care. The medical boards could go on, dumb and dumber, under-funded, and not acknowledging the problems – unless citizen action wakes them up. and, there is a way to do that – to force them into action on issues.
There is a rule of law regarding public agencies. Agencies are put in place to deal with problems contained in their mission. When an agency is informed of a problem they are required to act on the problem. So, each Medical Board, in each State, needs to be informed of the problems within their area – and a plan of action needs to be demanded. If they ignore the issue, or refuse to act, then they are guilty of a criminal act – nonfeasance; defined as “a failure to act when under an obligation to do so; arefusal (without sufficient excuse) to do that which it is your legal duty to do.”
Health Care: Can We “Take it Back” in 2005?…
The answer is NO… It would be too large an effort, and it simply isn’t worth saving.
We need to destroy the old system and start anew.
Let’s begin.