My thoughts on Healthcare in these United States

I would not wish my experience of the health care system on anyone. Although there are FAR worse cases out there, and all in all my experiences have been, for the most part positive. Regardless, they have been plentiful.
What is the cause for so many doctors visits, well primarily my wife has Stage 4 Breast cancer in her liver. So, totaling all the trips/experiences/ordeals that I've made/suffered/experienced with her both this time and when she had cancer the first time, along with whatever experiences I've had, two motorcycle accidents, one with insurance, one without, using the VA for several years, and having a 2.5 y.o. daughter with, thank god, good health, but who is not a total stranger to the occupational hazards of her age, to name a few. We wont go in to random visits such as C-sections, fibroids, mystery illness. In short, I'm no stranger to hospital emergency rooms, prescription runs, overnights, etc..
So that said, having experienced several aspects of our health care system with the exception of Medicare, these our my views.

First, let us do away with some myths:
Myth 1: America has the best health care in the World.
This is just incorrect. There is NO measure of a health care SYSTEM that ranks the US even close to the top of the world. Not life expectancy, not populace health, accessibility, patient care, nothing. And when we are talking about health care SYSTEMS must not we take into account the system of delivering health care to the people. Afterall, the best doctors in the world don't do anybody any good without the sick people for them to tend too.

The United States MAY have the best POTENTIAL health care in the world. With the amount of research, outstanding doctors, hospitals, facilities, etc. in this country, there is certainly the possibility of receiving great health care in this country, IF YOU HAVE ACCESS. And, there is the rub. The people have to have access to the health care. Again, what good is the health care if the sick people can't get it? While the overall numbers are highly debated, Some say 50 million, if we take the low number of the counter arguments, there are AT LEAST nearly 10 MILLION people, who are tax paying citizens who do not have insurance in this country. If we split the difference, there are roughly 25 million uninsured people in this country.

Now having witnessed our current system over many years this is what I have to say: To some degree, the current system in this country is legalized money laundering. Plain and simple. The whole system is designed to push the latest drug, most expensive procedure, or the costliest routine sometimes regardless of patients conditions/ wishes/ history. As long as it's covered by the insurance company the patient WITH insurance just pays the co-pay. It's the same money to them. The Patient without insurance, well at least they may not prescribe an unneeded procedure.

Procedures ordered, drugs taken, all with insurance company approval. Until,of course, they deny it. It's not about saving money for the insurance companies either. We, the US, spend twice the amount on health care than other countries that HAVE national coverage. We have the most inefficient and costliest health care system in the world. This is not opinion, it is fact. And this is between private hospitals and private insurance companies. Most of this expense is in the administration side of health care. So much for capitalism keeping the market efficient.

Examples of our waste in the treatment room;
In Germany, a country with national health care, if you check into a hospital, it's quite common to be hooked up to an IV of Hydrogen Peroxide. This isn't the stuff you pick up at the drug store and use it as an oral rinse, but a medical grade form of the same. This is done because it's effective in treating a wide variety of ailments, it's cheap and fast, and can be done by a nurse. NO doctor required. No expensive drugs, procedures, or machines involved.

In the US alone, there are roughly 750000 gallbladders removed every year. Many of these are for gall stones. Now, in these cases, when the patient is in relatively good overall health and it is a non emergency, there are several alternative ways to remove gall stones by following a specific diet that can be done in as little as 24 hours. I have personally done one of these methods twice over several years and it works. Total cost to me was less than $20. No hospital stay. No doctor, No drugs. Oh wait. I'm sensing a pattern. Even if it didn't work all the time, what's lost? A day. If an alternative approach fails you can always go ahead and have the surgery. Personally, I would rather try the non invasive approach and KEEP an organ that has it's place in my body than just jump in and cut it out. At least give a shot to save it. But hey, that's me.

So, do we need reform? YES.
Now do I have concerns regarding national health care. Of course.
Some say government can't do anything right. Well, this is true for many things, especially for our government. I mean let's face it. The EPA isn't protecting the environment. The FDA and the USDA are not keeping the Food and the Drugs safe. The SCC isn't regulating the banking industry, the...let's stop here, point is made. But, here is an interesting fact. Medicare, one of our current forms of national health care, operates at over twice the efficiency of it's, free market, capitalist competitors, the insurance industries. How is that for ironic? The other example of National sponsored health care is the VA system. This system also has vast savings over it's private counterparts like it's %40 discount on prescription drugs that it receives from the manufacturers.

Now, one concern for national health care is We The People. Having visited 47 of the 50 states, let us speak candidly, we have a CRAP diet as a people. We shovel food with little or no nutritional value into our bodies at ALARMING rates. Foods containing ingredients that have been banned by other countries. We are not even talking about genetically modified foods, which have also been banned by many countries (Thanks FDA). Let us cut to the chase of this argument; I mean Food is BIG business in this country with powerful lobbies. These companies spend BILLIONS ensuring their interests are protected by the government. It doesn't matter if the food is good for you or not, it's cheap and there is a lot of it. Who cares if its going to kill you? Oh wait, that's good news, that will help the health care industry by providing more customers. This is another example of how big business helps each other. I do love to hear stories of cooperation.

"I don't want a government standing between me and my doctor." Fair enough, I don't know any body who would. Personally, I don't know how many times I've had to wait for approval from an insurance company to find out if a doctor ordered drug or procedure would be covered by them. So as for this argument, to late, someone already is standing between me and my doctor, it's called an insurance company. And we all know how easy it can be to deal with them. I've made it out of IRS offices with less frustrations.

So, if We The People are to have an efficient, national health care system how would we do it? Well since we are picking up the tab for We, I would want the LESS chemicals in and on the food. Those that are used should ALL be approved by the USDA (currently less then %10 of chemicals used in agriculture are approved.) I would also not want to pay for all the illness' caused by the junk food addicted. I guess we would have to stop using High Fructose Corn syrup, artificial colors, and other substances which have already been banned in other countries. (The rise in Diabetes in this country and the rise in use of High Fructose corn syrup show a remarkably similar graph.)

So, in short, if We The People actually put restrictions on the following industries; Fertilizer (primarily petrochemical based which is primarily used in this country), chemical (additives, dies, etc.) and agribusiness (whose practices are responsible for low quality food stuffs), genetically modified food (seeds and animals), then I think that not only would We be picking up a smaller health care bill, but we would be a healthier country with FEWER trips to the doctor. And isn't THAT the sign of a healthy country.

So While I DO really want health care reform in this country, I really want reform on many levels. Of this I am less optimistic. Because lets face it. I have little hope in the regulators. The people who are supposed to protect us from the big robber barons have failed. The Robber barons are no longer individuals, they are corporations that make HUGE "campaign contributions" and are given the same rights as individuals, but not the same accountability or responsibilities. So we DO have the best democracy money can buy, thank you Greg Palast

BB